ALBANY ARGUS-EXTRA 


[ Read and Circulate. ] 



DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION, 


HELD AT THE CAPITOL, 


January 26 and 27, 1848. 


PROCEEDINGS, ADDRESS, RESOLUTIONS & SPEECHES 





AND THE ^ - 

DEMOCRATIC STATE ELECTORAL TICKET, 

PLEDGED TO THE NOMINEES OF THE 

jy^TIOJWtL, nEMOCR^lTlC COJWEJVTIOAT. 


Twenty thousand copies printed, by order of the Convention, 
1848 








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FIRST DAY. 


The Delegates to the Democratic State Con¬ 
vention, chosen under the recommendation ot 
the State Central Committee, organized tempo, 
rarily at the Mayor’s Court Room, in the City 
Hall, on Wednesday morning, 26th of Janu¬ 
ary, 1848, at 10 o’clock a. m. 

Judge T. A. Osborne, of Chautauque, call¬ 
ed to order, and on his motion, 

Gen. CHARLES BORLAND, of Orange, 
was called to the chair, and 

On motion of the Hon. J. D. Monell, of 
Columbia, 

GEORGE W. CLINTON, of Erie, and 
ELISHA B. SMITH, of Chenango, were ap¬ 
pointed secretaries. 

On motion of Mr. S. C. Parker, of On¬ 
ondaga, the counties were called, and the names 
of delegates enrolled—and credentials received. 

On motion of Mr. F. Follett, of Gene¬ 
see, a committee of eight (one from each ju¬ 
dicial district) was directed to be appointed by 
the Chair, to report to the convention the 
names of permanent officers thereof. 

The Chair named the committee as fol¬ 
lows: 

On the Organization of the Convention —Messrs. 
Follett, of the 8th; Alling, of the 1st; Hy¬ 
att, of the 2nd; Bookstaver, of the 3rd; Brom¬ 
ley, of the 4th; McWhorter, of the 5th; Pot¬ 
ter, of the 6th; and Sibley, of the 7th. 

On motion, the convention then adjourned 
to meet in the Assembly Chamber at 3 o’clock 
in the afternoon. 

Three o^clock, P. M. 

Tlie convention re-assembled in the Assem¬ 
bly Chamber, at the Capitol, pursuant to ad¬ 
journment. 

Gen. Borland, of Orange, the temporary 
chairman, called the convention to order. 

The roll of delegates was then called, as 
follows: 


Albany —Abraham Verplanck, Auj^uslus Pinck¬ 
ney, Erastiis Corning^, Henry L, Palmer. 

Rroowe—Joseph E. Ely. 

Cattaraugus—Marcus H. Johnson. 

Cai/wga—Alexander Thompson, William H. 
Noble, Charles W. Pomeroy. 

Chautauque —T. A. Osborne. 

Chenango—'EAisha B. Smith. 

Clinton —Isaac W. R. Bromley. 

Cofwwbio—Joseph D. Monell, Lucas Hoes. 

Cortland —Mathias Van Hoesen. 

Dutchess —J. M, Ketchum. 

Erie —William L. G. Smith, George W. Clin¬ 
ton, Jonathan Hoyt, Nathaniel M. Jones. 

Fulton and Hamilton —William Rob. 

' Genesee —Mark Beecher, Frederick Follett. 

Greene —Sylvester Nichols, Matthew Yeomans. 

Herkimer—George B. Judd, and J. M. Lyon. 

Jefferson—3. W. Tamblin, Isaac Munson, Har¬ 
vey D. Parker. 

Aings—Joseph O. Hasbrouck, D. H. Feeks. 

Lewis —D. S. Howard. 

Madison —Henry T. Sumner, Ralph Tanner. 

JUoTiroe—Joseph Sibley, Hubbard L. Allis,, 
Thomas Comes. 

Montgomery —J. G. Snell, George Caldwell. 

New York —Andrew Clark, Thomas Hayes,. 
Jesse 1 rush, William W. Dean, William Mc-- 
Murray, Charles McVean, Dennis Garrison, Wil¬ 
liam D. Craft, William Furey, John Griffen,. 
Charles Hughes,Alexander M. Ailing, John T, 
Wymbs, Lorenzo B. Shepard. 

Niagara —Milton Randall. 

Ojieida—Hiram Denio, Elon Comstock, Da¬ 
vid Moulton, Amasa S. Newberry. 

Onondaga —Dorastus Lawrence, Sanford C, 
Parker, Miles W. Bennett. 

Ontario —George R. Parburt. 

Orange—Charles Borland, J. C. Dimmick, 
John W. Martin. 

Osu'ego—Geo. H. M’Whorter, Isaac Hatch. 

Ofsego—Delos W. Dean, Benjamin D. North. 

Rensselaer—DaviCi L. Seymour, Isaac T. Grant, 
Wm. Carmichael. 

iSarafoga—Samuel Cheever, Joseph Baucus. 

Schenectady—Jo\\n C. Wright. 

Scbo/iarie—Thomas Lawyer, Joseph Bouck. 

Steuben —Hiram Potter, F. C. Deninny, Alex¬ 
ander H. Stevens. 

Tioga —Hiram A. Beebe. 

Tompkins —W. R. Humphrey. 

Ulster —John L. Bookstaver, Samuel Reynolds. 

Warren —Daniel G. Harris. 

Washington—Jo\\n Mairs, Isaac W. Thompson.. 

Wayne —Frederick M. Smith. 

Westchester —Abraham Hyatt. 

Yates —John L. Lewis. 





4 


Mr. Follett, of Genesee, from the com¬ 
mittee on organization, reported the names of 
the following gentlemen as officers of the con¬ 
vention :— 

For President. 

HIRAM DENIO, of Oneida. 

Vice-Presidents. 

1st dist.— William McMurray, New York. 

2d dist.— Joseph O. Hasbrouck, Kings. 

3d dist.— Joseph D. Monell, Columbia. 

4ih dist.— Samuel Cheever, Saratoga. 

6th dist.— Dorastus Lawrence, Onondaga. 

6lh dist.— Mathias Van Hoesen, Cortland. 

7th dist.— William H. Noble, Cayuga. 

kh dist.— Marcus H. Johnson, Cattaraugus. 

Secretaries. 

Hiram A. Beebe, of Tioga. 

Samuel Reynolds, Ulster. 

Andrew Clark, New York. 

Isaac Munson, Jetferson. 

Mr. Dean, of New-York, moved the adop¬ 
tion of the report—and it was adopted unani¬ 
mously. 

The Chair designated Messrs. Corning 
of Albany, and Monell of Columbia, as a 
committee to conduct the President to the 
chair. 

The President upon taking the chair, 
returned his acknov/ledgments, substantially as 
follows: 

Gentlemen of the Convention:—In returning 
my acknowledgments to you for the honor con¬ 
ferred on me, I hope you will not suppose that I 
intend a mere formal remark, when I say ihat I 
regret that your choice had not fallen on one more 
experienced in the duties of the chair. It has rare¬ 
ly fallen to my lot to preside at a public meeting 
of any sort—and never at one of any considera¬ 
ble importance. 1 have never been a member 
of any public assembly, so numerous or impor¬ 
tant as to require the adoption for its govern¬ 
ment of the usual parliamentary rules of pro- 

• ceedirig. I shall therefore need a large meas¬ 
ure of that indulgence, whichis usually extended 

(tended to an inexperienced presiding officer. 

You, gentlemen, have not failed to perceiv'e, 
that the period at which we have assembled is 
one, in some respects of an unusual character. 
The Hall in which we have met, and those 
which surround it, ordinarily tenanted 
officially by political friends, are at this time 
occupied by political opponents. This is not 

• strange; for it has occurred before. And if it be 
the result of the public voice—the fact fur¬ 
nishes no cause of complaint—scarcely of 
■regret. But the remarkable feature in the case 
is that the public authorities now installed in 
this state, can hardly pretend to have been 
called to their respective stations by the 
voice of a majority of the electors of the 
state. I apprehend that neither they, nor 
those who adhere to them, will pretend that 
they were thus selected for the places they 
(fill. This is certainly a remarkable fea¬ 
ture in the present state of things. It will, 
doubtless, iii the course of your delibera¬ 
tions, be a subject of enquiry on your part, and 
a matter wnich you will make the subject of a 
communication to the constituent body—to all the 
democrats of this state—what causes have con¬ 
spired to bring about this anomalous and very 
remarkable state of things. It is a subject, gen¬ 


tlemen, on which you have a right to speak—on 
which, I think it is your duty to speak—and to 
speak fearlessly, with firmness and plainness.— 

The causes of this state of things, I apprehend, 
should be fully developed, and so far as we can 
furnish facts, the public should be informed to 
whose delinquency it is owing, (if there be ac- 
countabilily for it resting any where) that this 
great state is governed and its destinies :ind re¬ 
sources wielded by authorities, elevated to place ^ 
by a minority of the people. And it will also ^ 
be your duty to take such measures in reference 
to this matter, as to prevent, if possible, a re¬ 
currence of a similar state of things. Tnis can 
be accomplished only by a steady inculcation of 
the usages which have heretofore enabled the 
majority to triumph in our political contests. 

Another feature of the times in which we are 
called to deliberate, is certainly of an unusual 
charater. We are now in a state of war—a state 
of things much to be regretted. For my part, 
and I believe in this I am not singular, 1 think 
oui character, and settled habits, are unfavora¬ 
ble to a state of war. Our destiny I have no 
doubt is to cultivate and carry onward the arts 
of peace. Our triumphs must be mainly the tri¬ 
umphs of civilization. War is undoubtedly a 
public calamity—one of the greatest that can be- 
fal a nation. There is however a misfortune 
greater than this. National degradation and dis¬ 
honor is the inevitable consequence of the neg¬ 
lect of a government to fulfil its duly to all its 
citizens—and to cause itself to be respected at 
home and abroad. Delinquency in this respect 
leads to repeated wars, and invites aggression; 
and whilst it degrades a people in their own eyes, 
renders them insignificant in the estimation of 
the nations of the earth. That, I repeat, is a ca¬ 
lamity far greater than actual war. 

It is matter of history, to which I need not 
more than briefly allude, that this state of 
things was brought about by repeated ag¬ 
gressions, calculated, if not intended to jirovoke 

war, and followed up by an invasion of our ter¬ 
ritory, without any intent or prospect of attain¬ 
ing the ostensible object of that invasion, or any 
other result than mutual hostility. It has been 
brought about by repeated indignities towards us 
as a nation, superadded to a series of unredressed 
outrages on the lives and property of our citi¬ 
zens. When this people thought tit to 
unite their destinies with those of a neigh¬ 
boring Republic, as independent essentially 
as our ‘own, it was declared on the part 
of Mexico that that act itself was a cause 
of war, and that war must necessarily en¬ 
sue—and following up that declaration, the 
messengers of peace, sent to them to arrange 
all matters of difference, and to avoid, if possi¬ 
ble, this last resort, W’ere dismissed with con¬ 
tumely and driven from the territory of Mexico. 

And this was followed, on their part, by menac¬ 
ing military movements, and war-like declara¬ 
tions and demonstrations and finally consumma¬ 
ted by an open invasion.and the murder of Amer- 
can citizens. It then became the duty of the con¬ 
stituted authorities—a duty which they perfor¬ 
med with a unanimity almost unparalleled—for 
the vote in the national councils w^as nearly 
unanimous—to declare that war existed between 
this country and Mexico, and by the act of Mexico 
herself. If that declaration had been made by 
the ordinary majority in Congress, it should 
have been respected by every citizen of this 
country; and the government, whilst the contest 
continued, should have been supported, and 
warmly supported—by every man who claimed 
to be a patriot:—Much more, when as the fact 

was, scarcely a man in either house of Con¬ 
gress dared to lift his voice either against 



5 


the declaration that war existed, or against 
the necessary measures for carrying on the 
contest. It would be supposed by all who 
were not familiar with, or who had not wit¬ 
nessed exhibitions of the bitterness and mad¬ 
ness of party, that the same unanimity with 
which that state of things was declared, by Con¬ 
gress, would have been found in the community 
geuerally, until the war had terminated honor¬ 
ably anil successfully. If that had been the case 
'—if the people had stood by their government 
as It was their duty to have done—and with the 
same unanimity which characterized the nation¬ 
al legislature—this war would at this time have 
been at an end. For it is most true—experience 
teaches it—that when an adversary finds its ene¬ 
mies divided among themselves—that there are 
those among them disposed to thwart the meas¬ 
ures of the government in conducting the con¬ 
test—it takes encouragement to prolong the con¬ 
test, in the hope that these ellorts to embarrass 
and cripple the government, may eventually 
succeed—and thus the war be terminated to their 
advantage, and to the dishonor of their enemies. 
Mexico is no insignificant opponent. That coun¬ 
try, at this time, has a population as large as the 
American colonies at the period of the Revolu¬ 
tion—and has ten times as much in wealth and 
natural resources. Mexico, is in facta formida¬ 
ble opponent, and though by the bravery of our 
army and the gallantry of our officers, she is now 
reduced to a position which renders her unable 
to continue the war—yet the country contains a 
numerous people, mured to the art of war and 
powerful in resources. That our ancient politi¬ 
cal opponents should not have taken a national 
view of the matter—that the thirst for power 
should have prevented them from acting as it 
seems to me every patriotic citizen should act, 
will not be surprising to any one who has lived 
long enough to have known what has taken place 
on former occasions, when this country has been 
at war. But that a portion of the party which 
placed the national administration in po wer,sho’d 
be found, which by raising false issues, by 
mere clamor, should seek to weaken and cripple 
the government—to impair its efforts and to de¬ 
prive it of public confidence, is not a little re¬ 
markable. It behooves the representatives 
of the democracy of this state—the repre¬ 
sentatives of the party that called the national 
administration into power, to make a communi¬ 
cation also to the constituent body in relation to 
this matter. You have the right to speak au- 
thorittaively, and I trust you will do so fearlessly 
and decidedly on these points. You have been 
freely chosen by the various local constituen¬ 
cies in the State, in the manner long known and 
recognized by the democratic party, when they 
seek to express their opinions on great national 
questions. I trust, therefore, that besides the or¬ 
dinary duties which you are called upon to per¬ 
form, relating more immediately to the support 
of the administration of your choice and to the 
measures necessary to provide, when its term 
shall expire, for a succession of the same general 
character—that you will deem it your duty to 
express in a loud voice, and a firm tone, the 
opinions of the representatives of the democracy 
of the state, on these important subjects. [The 
address was received with decided and warm to¬ 
kens of approbation.] 

Mr. Shepard of New-York, then offered 
the following resolution:— 

Resolved, That the chair appoint a committee for 
the purpose of perfecting the organization oi the De¬ 
mocratic party of the Slate, to consist of two delegates 
from each judicial district; also a committee to consist 
of one delegate from each judicial district, to report 


resolutions for the consideration of the Convention, and 
a similar committee to report an address to the Demo¬ 
cracy of the State. 

The resolution was adopted. 

The President then named the following 
committees, in pursuance of the resolution just 
adopted: 

On Organization —Messrs. Corning of Albany, 
Alling and Hughes of JSew York, Feeks of 
Kings, Martin of Orange, Nichols of Greene, 
Caldwell of Montgomery, Thompson of Wash¬ 
ington, Judd of Herkimer, Comstock of Onei¬ 
da, Smith of Chenango, Dean of Otsego, Smith 
of Wayne, Sibley of Monroe, Smith of Erie 
and Randall of Niagara. 

On Resolutions—Mehsrs. Shepard of N. York, 
Borland of Orange, Wright of Schenectady, 
Snell of Montgomery, McWhorter of Oswego, 
Sumner of Madison, Lewis of Yates and Os¬ 
borne of Chautaiique. 

On the Address —Messrs. Me Yean of N. York, 
Dimmick of Orange, Seymour of Rensselaer, 
Bromley of Clinton, Parker of Onondaga, Ely 
of Broome, Parburt of Orange and Clinton of 
Erie. 

And then, on motion of Mr. Wright, of 
Schenectady, the convention adjourned to 7 
o’clock, P. M. 

Seven o’clock P. M. 

The convention re-assembled at 7 o’clock. 

Mr. McVean of New-York, from the com¬ 
mittee appointed to prepare an Address, re¬ 
ported that the committee had united in recom¬ 
mending for adoption an Address—which he 
would read. 

Mr. McVean read the following Address, 
which was listened to throughout with marked 
attention by the Convention and by a large au¬ 
dience, and received with applause: 

ABBKESS, 

TO 7HE DEMOCRACY of NEW- 
YORK. 

The representatives of the whole people em¬ 
braced within the democratic party, in a regu¬ 
lar convention of delegates assembled at Syra¬ 
cuse in September last, appointed a state com¬ 
mittee, in whom they reposed, without any oth- 
er limitation than their discretion, the power to 
call future state conventions of the democratic 
party. No other body since chosen repre¬ 
senting or pretending to represent the demo¬ 
cratic party, has interfered in the power re¬ 
posed in the state central committee. That 
committee, in pursuance of the power thus fully 
vested in them, called this convention now here 
assembled. Its authority as a convention of the 
delegates of the democratic party is therefore 
unquestionable. 

A distinct separate and hostile party organi¬ 
zation of persons who w^ere lately members of 
the democratic party, was afterwards made at 
Herkimer. The persons who formed this new 
organization made no pretensions to regularity, 
or that the movement which led to it was otL 
erwise than hostile to the preexisting organiza- 





6 


tion known as the democratic party: On the 
contrary, they justified’their secession from^the 
party on the ground that it held to principles so 
obnoxious to them, that a separation was ne. 
cessary to the proper advancement of their ad¬ 
verse principles. Nothing has occurred since to 
change their relation of hostility to the princi- 
' pies which in their judgment justified their vol- 
UKtary separation. They have indeed since 
changed their place of holding their state con¬ 
vention from Herkimer to Utica, but they do not 
pretend that it is a diflferent organization, or 
that they have changed in any manner their 
principles which induced them to separate from 
the party. On the contrary the whole machine¬ 
ry of the Herkimer organization has been care¬ 
fully put in motion to declare to the world that 
it is their organization, and that the principles 
which induced them to secede are the principles 
of their existing organization at its changed 
place of meeting. They do not pretend that 
the endorsement of their view's by several of the 
members of thelegislature, has in the least aba¬ 
ted their hostility to the party 1‘rom which they 
went ibrth, or the organization which that party 
has kept up and under which we are assembled 
in this convention. We concede that their or¬ 
ganization is hostile to us to the fullest extent 
they claim, that it is not only hostile in form 
and in action, but hostile in principle. They 
have declared that their political principles are 
irreconcilably opposed to ours, and as W'e are 
determined to maintain ours at all hazards, and 
exclude their narrow tests from the democratic 
party, their secession was the inevitable result 
of the position. However much we may regret 
that the cause for separation existed, itis better, 
the separation being eifected by their deliberate 
act, it should be so marked as to lead to no mis¬ 
takes as to our several positions. 

The high position that some of them had in 
the party by our influence as manifested in their 
long continuance in office, renders it proper on 
this occasion, that we should briefly review the 
causes that led to the separation, and to the 
consequences that will follow it. 

The occasion which led to their separation 
was undoubtedly that which they avow'ed in 
their act of separation, namely, that the demo¬ 
cratic State Convention at Syracuse refused to 
adopt as a political lest, or as a subject of poli¬ 
tical or party action, the test, issue, sentiment 
or principle, involved in the Wilmot proviso, 
and determined that the democratic party should 
maintain the position of neutrality in regard to 
I. It is well known how'ever, that their hostil- 
}y was as settled and active within the party 
)afore that event as after. They generally as- 
^rt that they are or were actuated by a desire 
p avenge the W'rong that was inflicted on them 
}y the party. That wrong they sometimes de- 
^are to be the defeat of the late Gov. Wright 
U the general election preceding the last. Their 
hostility was as determined and as openly and 
pjuriously manifested during the campaign that 
prminated in that result, as after. In that 
very election the democratic candidates for Con¬ 
gress in one of the New York districts, in the 
Westchester district, in the Orange district, in 
the Dutchess district, and in the Jefferson dis¬ 
trict, were defeated by them for the sole reason 
that the national democratic party and the na¬ 


tional administration had the first affections of 
the candidates. In these congressional districts, 
the state democratic ticket which they support¬ 
ed, had a large majority. The defeat of the 
democratic candidates for Congress placed us as 
a party in the minority in the present House of 
Representatives. The wrong they in that cam¬ 
paign alleged as the cause of their fierce hostil¬ 
ity during it, was, that President Polk had not 
appointed Mr. Flagg Secretary of the Treasury, 
and their friends generally to office. It is in¬ 
deed true that Mr. Flagg was not appointed, 
but it is equally true that in the commercial me¬ 
tropolis, where the more important officers ex¬ 
ist, the larger portion of those officers were ap¬ 
pointed at their request, and it is notorious 
that the recent schemes for the disorganization 
of the democratic party were planned and ma¬ 
tured by some of the high federal officers in that 
city. 

Their hostility had its origin prior to the in¬ 
auguration of the President. It is well known 
that in Congress, intermediate the election and 
the inauguration of the President elect, on the 
bill to annex the then Republic of Texas to the 
United Stales, the manifestations of treason in 
the Senate to the will of the People, as declared 
by the Baltimore Convention and sanctioned by 
the election, were so strong as to cause the gen¬ 
eral belief that its passage was in peril. To 
rebuke this incipient treason, and to vindicate 
the supremacy of the popular will, the ever-re- 
liable and patriotic demociacy of the City of 
New York agreed to hold a public meeting,— 
The same persons who personally labored for 
days unsuccessfully to break up the recent dem¬ 
ocratic State Convention at Syracuse, tried to 
break up that assembly of the people. Their 
treasonable letters from Washington, designed 
to effect such a purpose, appeared in a news¬ 
paper in New York on he day of the meeting 
previous to the meeting itself, although purport- 
ing to be in answer to invitations to attend the 
meeting! Their hostility to the democratic 
parly and the incoming administration, was as 
clearly shadowed forth then, at it was enacted 
afterwards at Syracuse. 

At other times they assert and more frequent¬ 
ly, as the term of the administration approaches 
its close, that their hostility had its origin in the 
results of the Baltimore Convention itself — 
This is undoubtedly the primary cause to which 
all others are accessories. These imaginary 
wrongs which exciled their passion, have all 
grown from that fundamental wrong. The pros¬ 
pective loss of central power W'hich was made 
inevitable by the result of the deliberations of 
the Syracuse Convention, was however the prox¬ 
imate cause which led them to break the slender 
ligament which yet bound them to the democrat¬ 
ic party. 

The central power, which had grown up at 
Albany under the late Constitution at its com¬ 
mencement, and was wielded by those who held 
there the State executive offices, was one of 
those practical political despotisms which are 
felt w'ithout being seen. The patronage W'hich 
that constitution gave them officially, afl'orded 
them ample means to excite the hopes and fears 
of the needy. To extend their patronage and to 
secure further means to reward the obedient and 
punish the refractory, the whole slate banking 






7 


power and Ihe banlis with their over-shadowing 
money influence were brousht within the official 
control of the central power. The model of 
party organization w’as the feudal system. The 
lords paramount at the centre controlled the in* 
termediate lords in the centre of each county, 
and they again controlled their minor divisions. 
Like its model, its characteristic was strength, 
and like it, it produced a vassalage debasing and 
degrading. To break up and disperse this pow¬ 
er, w’as one of the controlling motives that in¬ 
duced the call of a convention to form a new 
constitution. 

Most effectually was that great work consum¬ 
mated by thatinstrument. It is true itlelilhem 
in office, but their offices were the mere shadow 
of their former power. 

It was early foreseen however, that they would 
struggle to retain their places, and as they ap¬ 
proached the crisis of their fate, they would be¬ 
come more desperate, and it w'as foretold that 
the event which would reduce them to the level 
of a common equality with other respectable cit¬ 
izens, would signalize their departure from a 
party which for a quarter of a century had 
pampered their pride, that they would lose all 
sense of gratitude for the long continued ana 
multiplied favors of the past, in gratifying the 
desire to revenge the omission at last to continue 
them in place and power. 

The adoption of the new constitution clearly 
pointed to their displacement, as necessary to 
complete the reform it was designed to accom¬ 
plish. It was proper that the dispersion of the 
monopoly should be followed by the dispersion 
of the monopolists. Those whose counsels pre¬ 
vailed at the Syracuse convention, were govern¬ 
ed by the best of motives. Their design was to 
nntrammel the sources of political power.— 
They did not oppose the continuance in office of 
the representatives of the central power, be¬ 
cause they held their places for a quarter of a 
century, or because they belonged to another 
generation; but because they constituted a com¬ 
bination of persons habitually unfriendly to the 
enjoyment of freedom of opinion, and were prac¬ 
tised against freedom of action; because they 
had wielded the central power, constituting the 
central despotism, designed to be overthrown 
by the new constitution. 

The fulmination of the wrath of the central 
power, the bitterest denunciation and the coars- 
est invective, with which democrats were as¬ 
sailed, who expressed the design to remove 
their odious monopoly, by the exercise of the 
long-neglected duty of rotation in office, were 
allow’ed to pass without recrimination. Long 
possession of office and power had led them to 
consider themselves the democratic party, the 
whole of it in this state, and the most essential 
part of it in the Union. They consequently re¬ 
garded the proposition to supersede them in of¬ 
fice, as rebellion against the party itself, and an 
insult to those to whom w^ere committed the sa¬ 
cred trust of governing. Those who were sub¬ 
jected mentally to their power, and whose pas¬ 
sive submission entitled them to the rank of true 
men, viewed them and the matter in the same 
light. It was natural, entertaining such views 
of their position, that they should consider that 
the effort to remove them had its origin in a de¬ 
sire to injure them personally, as w'ell as good 


government, and be passionate, and it was nat¬ 
ural, also, that those who fell conscious that 
they were actuated by the single desire to pro¬ 
mote the public good, should treat them with 
forbearance. Indeed nothing can better illus¬ 
trate the spirit of generous toleration which gov¬ 
erns the true democracy, than the mode in 
which the assaults of the central power were 
received and treated during the contest which 
preceded and terminated in the Syracuse con¬ 
vention; and we may add, also, that nothing 
could more strongly illustrate the evil tendency 
of the state constitution under w hich these ru¬ 
lers came into and were continued in power, 
than their course of conduct during and after 
that contest, and if there were any lingering 
doubts among the people about the propriety of 
the reform provided in the new constitution, the 
subsequent conduct of the central power has 
forever dispelled them. 

They ruled the party for twenty-five years, 
and when they could rule no longer, left it be¬ 
cause it refused to adopt the Wilmot proviso!— 
What is the Wilmot proviso? It will best be 
defined by showing how its adherents have 
sought to apply the principle involved in it.— 
When the bill known as the Three Million bill, 
was being discussed in the House of Represen¬ 
tatives, and which proposed to put at the dispo¬ 
sal of the President money to enable him to ne¬ 
gotiate a treaty of peace with Mexico, with ter¬ 
ritorial indemnity, Mr. Wilmot offered as an 
amendment to it, a proviso that slavery should 
be forever excluded from the territory to be ac¬ 
quired under such treaty. The principle, then, 
is this—they propose as an end, to exclude slave¬ 
ry from the territory that may be acquired from 
Mexico, and as the means, a previous law of 
congress prohibiting its introduction. It is 
conceded by them that it is a well settled law, 
that without any action on the part of our gov- 
ernment, slavery w’ould be excluded from such 
territory by the laws of Mexico, which would 
be the law of the territory when annexed, until 
changed. 

This concession involves the admission that 
their proposed end would be accomplished with¬ 
out using their means. It is an admission that 
entire abstinence from political agitation, w’ould 
secure the end which they deem so vastly im¬ 
portant. 

The democratic party and its administration, 
have also an end which they consider of momen¬ 
tous importance, to the accomplishment of 
which they have devoted all their energies.— 
That end is the acquisition of territory from 
Mexico by treaty, not for the sake of acquisi¬ 
tion, but as the only possible indemnity and sat¬ 
isfaction attainable. The end we propose, is 
the acquisition of territory. The end they pro¬ 
pose, is the exclusion of slavery from such ter¬ 
ritory. We make no issue with them on their 
proposed end. Our issue is as to their means. 
Their means, although entirely unnecessary by 
their own admission for the accomplishment of 
their end, are the most effectual that could be 
devised to prevent us from accomplishing ours. 
It is well knowm, and to none better than to 
them, that the agitation of the question of sla¬ 
very within the democratic party, is fatal to its 
ascendancy. They are schooled in that truth. 
When they with us twice supported Mr. Van 



8 


Buren for the presidency, and desired again to 
support him the third time, we (they with us) 
declared in the most solemn manner, by resolu¬ 
tions in Congress and out of it, that all politi¬ 
cal agitation which tended to disturb the rela¬ 
tion between the master and his slave in the 
several states, although not the object of the 
agitation, was in contravention of the spirit of 
the constitution which it was our first duty to 
uphold, and was the worst incendiarism, be¬ 
cause it produced sectional divisions and discord 
between the people of the several states. 

Is that which was unconstitutional when Mr. 
Van Buren was our candidate, constitutional 
now? Is that which was incendiarism then, 
less so now? These politicians may change, 
but principles never change; and the democratic 
party, standing fast to its integrity now as then, 
denounces such agi ation as treasonable and in¬ 
cendiary. Whatever others may do, that great 
party will maintain the compromises of the con¬ 
stitution. in their spirit, and with the candor of 
truth. This was the stone that was made the 
chief of the corner by the great apostles of lib¬ 
erty, whom we humbly but sincerely follow. 

Nothing can better illustrate the entire aban- 
donment by the seceders of their former princi¬ 
ples, than to contrast their present conduct with 
their conduct immediately preceding the last 
Baltimore Convention. They then denounced 
such agitation as incendiarism, because its ne¬ 
cessary result was sectional division. They 
have since without provocation commenced the 
same agitation, and point to that very result, 
accomplished by their agitation, as their justifi¬ 
cation for its commencement. 

They abandoned the democratic party, be¬ 
cause, in the spirit of toleration and catholic 
liberality, it determined to maintain a platform 
broad enough for them to stand on wuth us.— 
The difference between us is this : we do not 
exclude them, but they have erected a new plat¬ 
form, so narrow in its dimensions, that it will 
hold none besides themselves. It is possible for 
them to come to us. The design of their plat- 
form was to make it impossible for us to go to 
them, and in that they w ere successful. 

Why did the central power, after their open 
and undisguised abandonment of the democratic 
party, as proclaimed at Herkimer, since seek 
the endorsement of members of the legislature 
who happened to be at Albany ? The men who 
were then there were elected under the old con- 
stitution. Two several state conventions of the 
■^jemocratic party had been held, since their 
flection, under the new constitution. Why were 
hese vestiges of a former political creation gal- 
tanized into a show of life? Were they so cow- 
k 1 by the exhibition of public scorn for their 
hithlessness, that they resorted to an expedient 
)o extreme and desperate, to give them a little 
>f the coloring of that regularity which a month 
>efore they so boldly scouted? They again 
adopted at Albany the same narrow, proscript- 
.ve and bigoted creed. They re-laid the same 
lorner-stone. The priests that minister at the 
altar are the same, and the worshippers are the 
same. Did they intend to use this coloring as 
the foundation of a claim for admission in the 
Baltimore Convention? Why should they, with 
a declaration of principles wholly at war with 
the principles of the entire national democracy 


which will assemble there, seek admission 
among them? They are intelligent enough to 
know that if their principles should get admis 
sioa in that convention, the democratic party 
would be broken up. They know’, also, that 
the convention will exclude that principle.— 
What will they then do? They abandoned the 
Syracuse Convention for its refusal to adopt 
that principle. They will be bound, in honor, 
also to abandon the National Convention for the 
same cause. The state convention was for state 
purposes, and they then abandoned it, because 
it refused to adopt a principle of a national 
character, having nothing to do with state poli¬ 
tics. The cause that was good at Syracuse, 
w ill be better at Baltimore—and they are since 
pledged to its sufficiency. Those who believe 
that they will abide by the Baltimore Conven- 
tion, under any circumstances, believe them to 
be more infirm of purpose, and more dishonor¬ 
able than we do. 

What other object, then, can they have in 
view, than a claim to the honor of political 
martyrdom, with a view of making them more 
formidable for mischief in the approaching 
great struggle between the democratic party and 
its enemies? They labored diligently for days 
at Syracuse for a show of martyrdom, but they 
were unsuccessful. E^xperience has since prov¬ 
ed to them that they would soon be powerless 
for injury to the democratic party, if they did 
not endeavor to maintain a position within it. 
The principle which led them to abandon the 
party, is one they hold in common with the 
whig party. They and the whig party are alike 
hostile to those who oppose their principles.— 
Where there is agreement in principle, there is 
a tendency in the law of politics to an union, 
which time will certainly accomplish. There 
can be but two parties in this country, and they 
are a fragment of the one with wffiich they 
agree. At one election they gave the wffiigs 
their present majority in the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives ; at the succeeding election they gave 
the whigs all the Executive departments and 
both houses of the legislature in this state; and 
at this very hour, when our country is engaged 
in a foreign war, they glory in both achieve¬ 
ments. 

Fellow citizens—The war forced upon us by 
the aggressions of Mexico, is the war of our 
country. He that will oppose it, or he that 
hesitates in the support of it, is not of the coun¬ 
try. He is an alien in sentiment within it, and 
is unworthy of the association of Americans. 

We are in favor of the acquisition of territory 
as compensation and indemnity. Those who 
profess to be in favor of the acquisition of ter¬ 
ritory, and insist upon the agitation of a sub. 
ject which W’ill prevent it, cannot very strongly 
commend themselves to the candid judgment of 
the intelligent. Those who openly advocate 
the no territory doctrine, are less to be feared, 
for they can be met in the open field of argu- 
ment; the others are the more insidious and 
subtle foes, being in ambuscade. 

Strongly as we are impressed with the pro¬ 
priety and justice of the acquisition of territory, 
we would despise ourselves if we availed our- 
selves of a conquest to secure that end, because 
the weakness of our enemy yielded to our 
strength. Such a motive is entirely repugnant 






9 


to tiiose principles of moral justice which are 
the life of the democratic faith and democratic 
practice. 

The title of the Mexican government is a title 
by conquest, from those who held it by conquest. 
If we took it and held it by the same title, they 
could not complain. Their title is legal, and 
our title would be also legal. As a moral ques¬ 
tion, if they have wronged us, if they owe us a 
debt which they are morally bound to pay, and 
brought upon themselves the ‘war, violating a 
moral duty, then our moral right to retain the 
territory in the payment of the debt, is as strong 
as is the moral duty to pay where payment is 
due. 

From the very nature of our institutions, and 
the form and design of our government, such 
territory when acquired, would not be held by 
conquest, as such tenure is knownin the interna¬ 
tional code. We would hold it, not for our use, 
but for the use of man, be he there or come he 
whence he may. It would be held only to be 
surrendered to the government of the occupants 
of the land. Can territory be held by con¬ 
quest which is alike free to all, and is governed 
or is to be governed by its occupants by a gov 
ernment of their own? We deny that such a 
tenure is a tenure by conquest, as such tenure 
has been known in the world. It is no more 
than the restoration of moral rights by legal 
means. We (the American people) have de¬ 
volved upon us the great work of restoring to 
man his long lost rights. The means by which 
we are to accomplish this end, ought to be le¬ 
gally as well as morally just. The field is in 
part opened to us by the conduct of Mexico, and 
such moral and legal means are offered for our 
use. Shall we occupy it? Shall we now run 
with manly vigor the race that is set before us? 
Or shall we yield to the suggestions of a sickly 
fanaticism, and sink into an enervating slum¬ 
ber? Labor was the consecrated means of 
man’s subsistence when he was created. To 
replenish the earth and subdue it, was his or¬ 
dained mission and destiny. We feel no emo¬ 
tion but pity for those whose philanthrophy or 
patriotism or religion, has led them to beleive 
that they can prescribe a better course of duty 
than that of the God who made us all! They 
whose representatives we are, are ready to per¬ 
form that for which they were ordained. They 
feel all the strength that the consciousness of 
being right can impart, and are anxious to press 
onward in fulfillment of destiny. 

Fellow citizens, speaking in the name of the 
great party to which we belong, w’e declare 
ourselves in favor of free trade. We have no 
wish, in this exigency of our public affairs, to 
alter the tariff of 1846, except so far as may be 
necessary to make it more conformable to the 
revenue standard. We are nevertheless in fa¬ 
vor of free trade as the ultimate settled policy 
of the country. We regard free trade as the 
means of giving bread to Europe and wealth to 
America, and the certain means of establishing 
that brotherhood between the citizens of the 
world, which will assimilate all governments, 
make them all free, and expunge from the inter¬ 
national code the relics of barbarism that linger 
there. 

Those who profess to be in favor of free trade, 
and whose political efforts are directed to the 


single object of alienating the affections of the 
people of the section of the country who are its 
supporters, cannot, by an intelligent communi¬ 
ty, be regarded in any other light than as being 
its secret but most determined foes. 

No one can be regarded as a true democrat 
who at any time would insist upon the political 
agitation of a moral abstraction, as of para¬ 
mount importance, when the direct tendency of 
such agitation is to create sectional dissensions 
and divisions between us and our natural allies 
in upholding and advancing the great doctrines 
of the democracy; and the agitation of such an 
abstraction during w'ar can be regarded as little 
less than treasonable. Those who agitated it 
during the war with England, and those who 
agitate it now, history will consign to a common 
condemnation. Tho&e who wield “fire-brands” 
now are no better than those who burned ‘‘blue- 
lights” then. When the war shall be crowned 
with a lasting and honorable peace, and territo¬ 
ry shall have been acquired, those who may 
then occupy it may pass all such laws of a local 
nature and application as to them may seem 
just, without interference from us, and without 
being subjected to the tender mercies of the de¬ 
luded fanatics or the revengeful partizans who 
have volunteered their undesired services ir 
their behalf. They will be no more useful t( 
the inhabitants of such territory in that day 
than they are to their country in this. Theif 
philanthropy is as spurious as their patriotism 
and leads to nothing but mischief. They an! 
those who act with them support no war but t 
war upon their country, and when it is engage^ 
in a foreign war, they wage their war upon i( 
the fiercer. 

When the political power of the state waf 
wielded for the benefit of individuals, it was < 
necessary part of the system that the delegates 
to the national convention should express the 
central will, which was single. Under the new 
constitution, power has been so diffused that 
the smallest civil division may have and express 
its own will by the agent ol its own selection. 
The remnants of the ancient regime adhere to 
their old system of centralism, and insist that it 
is democracy, as they practised it, that dele¬ 
gates should be chosen by a state convention. 
They seem unconscious that this last remnant 
of feudality is inconsistent with the new order 
qf things, and pertinaciously cling to the shadow 
after the substance has departed. They may 
conduct their internal party affairs as they 
please, free from our interference. We have 
no veneration for their system or their practice. 
We prefer the progressive spirit of this age to 
the proscriptive spirit of the last. We think it 
decidedly better to be democrats in our action, 
than in our professions. We go where demo¬ 
cracy leads us, and we are content that they re- 
main where an exploded system left them. 

Whatever force there may be in the argument 
that as between the democratic parly and the 
whig party, the state should give a united vote 
by a general ticket, in electing a President, it 
is w’ithout force in a friendly struggle between 
the members of the same party in selecting a 
candidate for President. Nothing can be more 
proper or more democratic than that each local¬ 
ity should be distinctly heard and felt in such a 
struggle. The district system of electing dele- 



10 


gates Will accomplish this end, and the slate sys¬ 
tem will prevent it. This system is in conform¬ 
ity with the practice of the democracy of other 
states, and we do most cordially endorse the re- 
commendation of ihe state convention in respect 
to it. 

Fellow citizens, the democratic party, reno¬ 
vated by the action of a new state constitution 
and the desertion of some assumed leaders, is 
taking a new start in its career of progress.— 
Those who would have imparted to its councils 
the feebleness of a morbid fanaticism, and to its 
action the imbecility of age in the vigor of its 
youth, have voluntarily departed from it. They 
will take w’ith them only those whose habitual 
servility has made them passive. The demo¬ 
cratic party wants no leaders. Principle is the 
only leader that never deceives. Nine out of 
every ten who in this emergency will quit the 
party, will follow leaders whom they have long 
regarded as the democratic party, entirely re¬ 
gardless of all principles. 

The system of leaders, of lords and little 
lords, is exploded. Henceforth the people will 
be their own leaders, and their own rulers.— 
Hitherto the road to favor was central influence. 
Henceforth the aspirant for popular favor will 
appeal to the people, the true source of power. 
Public opinion, which hitherto was elaborated 
at the centre and compelled to the extremes, 
henceforth will be the aggregation of individual 
opinions, flowing in free and healthy channels 
from the extremes to the centre. The new gen¬ 
eration to which the management of the party 
is committed, is imbued with a belter .spirit, 
more tolerant, more catholic, and more progres¬ 
sive than was that of its predecessors. When 
the shackles of the mind which they imposed, 
shall have been fairly broken, and when all our 
citizens shall stand upright in the full conscious¬ 
ness of the possession of mental freedom, the 
value of the great reformation by the new con- 
stitution, will be fully appreciated. Men will 
then no longer form their opinions by a calcula¬ 
tion of profits, nor conceal them for fear of loss. 
The power of the few will have gone forever. 
The mental power of the many wdll then reign 
supreme. The triumph of the principle of the 
diffusion of power over its monopoly, will have 
been established, and a government of opinion 
will be substituted for a government of men, 

We have made this exposition of theaffairs^f 
the democratic party in this state, in justice to 
itself, and that the propriety of its conduct may 
be vindicated in the judgment of the democracy 
of the Union, wdiose confidence we are as proud 
to know that we have, as we are to feel that we 
deserve. We do not apply, or design to apply, 
any portion of these remarks to such as have 
been misled by the arts or misrepresentations of 
leaders or by a too confiding reliance upon them. 
That class of our fellow citizens we desire to 
reclaim from error or misapprehension, and to 
invite their co-operation in an earnest effort to 
sustain our cause, and the principles and candi¬ 
dates of the Democratic Party. 

We desiie peace. We desire no other con¬ 
troversy with those that differ from us than the 
controversy which ought to exist between those 
whose principles, aims and purposes are essen¬ 
tially different. Their separation may leave us 
in a minority, but we consider disunion in party 


action a far worse calamity. We are satisfied 
that with union we will soon regain our strength. 
They have defeated us \vhile they remained with 
us, and would have done so again had they not 
departed from us. It is impossible to lose any. 
thing by their going out from among us. We 
have now the prospect of success, by a cordial 
union of effort directed to the same end. 

If there are any out of this State who believe 
that the separation is a separation for local 
causes, let them be undeceived. We have shown 
that the hostility of the seceders had its origin 
in the action of the national democratic party 
itself, and that the avowed object of their se¬ 
paration is on a principle of national politics.— 
Their hostility to us as a local party is less bit^ 
ter than their hostility to the national party to 
which we belong. We are more subject to the 
exhibition of their hostility, for the reason that 
we as a part of the whole are locally within the 
sphere of their political action. 

Had the seceders, in a fit of passion arising 
from their defeat in some personal scheme, for¬ 
med a new irregular party organization, in our 
strong desire to uphold the democratic party, 
we would willingly sacrifice all personal feel¬ 
ings to unite with them; but their hostility is 
worse than mere irregularity. It is fundamen¬ 
tal. They are not onfy irregular in their action, 
but their hostility to the democratic party itself 
and its principles is determined. They have 
not only adopted the creed of the opposition in 
its different phases of federal, whig, and aboli¬ 
tion, but its worst practices in all those phases, 
as exhibited in impeding the action of the gov¬ 
ernment in conducting a foreign war, and in the 
agitation of a disturbing sectional question.— 
Their opposition to the National democratic par¬ 
ty is as determined as is that of the whig party 
proper, and more bitter. We regard them as 
the enemies of the democratic party, not tempo¬ 
rarily, but permanently. Their hostility to the 
principles of the party is fixed, and is the cause 
and not the result of their separation from it. 

We appeal to the great masses of the demo- 
cratic party to remain within it. We ask yon 
not to follow us who are but humble members 
of it. We desire to remain with you as co-equals 
in that party, whose ancient renown is our com¬ 
mon property. Follow not leaders, but fol¬ 
low’ principles. We desire to be emphatic with 
you in our appeal not to follow leaders, but to 
follow principles, the ancient principles which 
are the sure foundation of the democratic faith. 
We desire henceforth as heretofore to act W’ilh 
you in harmonious effort to uphold that great 
national party, upon which is devolved the ex- 
elusive duty of advancing the interests of this 
great country in peace, and vindicating its honor 
in war. Remem ber that the recurrence of a war 
is a national event, that tries men’s souls, and 
divides them into two parties, one for the coun¬ 
try, and the other against it. And although 
men under such circumstances may temporarily 

vote a lie” to shield them from the punish¬ 
ment which they feel they deserve, yet in the 
end, instinct, sentiment, or habit prevails, and 
they are found openly in the ranks of the ene- 
my, where their hearts were at the beginning. 

In such a struggle, he that is with us, with a 
condition or a proviso, is no better than an open 
enemy. He that is not for the country uncondi- 





11 


tionally, is against it. He that is not for the 
democratic party and its administration, without 
a cavil, is against them. Be assured, happen 
what will, the national democratic party will 
stand. It will stand upon the rock of its owm 
integrity, the monument of all that is good in 
the past, a beacon to all that is glorious in the 
future. Its triumphs in reserve, are as bright 
as those it has achieved. Its victories are the 
victories of patriotism. Its triumphs are the 
triumphs of principle. 

Mr. Judd, of Herkimer, moved the adoption 
of the Address, and it was adopted unanimous¬ 
ly, and with much cheering. 

The committee on resolutions being now 
called on to report, 

Mr. Shepard, of New York, stated that 
the committee had not yet completed their la¬ 
bors; but by to-morrow morning, they would 
be prepared to report. 

Mr. Corning, from the committee on or¬ 
ganization, stated that that committee were not 
prepared to report this evening. 

Mr. Parburt of Ontario, expressed a de¬ 
sire to have at least a report in part from the 
committee on resolutions to-night. 

Mr. Shepard replied th«t such a sugges¬ 
tion was made in committee, but it was thought 
best, as the convention no doubt would preter, 
before adopting any of the resolutions, to hear 
the whole series, not to report in part. He 
would state however, that the resolutions would 
conform generally to the spirit of the address 
which had just been read, and adopted with 
such entire unanimity. 

Mr. Parburt waived his suggestion, and 

Mr. Corning of Albany, moved that when 
this Convention adjourns, it adjourn to me^t in 
the Mayor’s Court Room in the City Hall, at 
11 o’clock to-morrow morning. 

Mr. McVean remarked that as neither com¬ 
mittee was ready to report, and as the most im¬ 
portant labors of every deliberative body fell up¬ 
on Its committees, it would be well to adjourn un¬ 
til to-morrow, and to name a later hour in the 
morning than had been suggested, to give both 
eommittees ample time to deliberate and confer 
together. There was another reason which im¬ 
pelled him to desire it. We had come together 
from different sections of this greatstate—having 
no other acquaintance with each other, than that 
which grew out of common sympathies and 
common objects, as fellow democrats. He should 
be glad—and he knew that others felt as he did— 
to renew and extend a personal acquaintance 
with his associate delegates to this convention, 
and to interchange views and sentiments in re¬ 
gard to the present position of our po itical af¬ 
fairs. We were in the midst of an important 
era in the history of the Democratic Party of this 
State. We had 'found ourselves impelled to de¬ 
clare, as it were to the world, the existence of 
such a state of things as induced Congress, under 
similar circumstances, to recognize the existence 
of war with Mexico—to announce to our breth¬ 
ren in and out of the State that a fragment of the 


democratic party of this State—a portion of those 
who formerly acted politically with ns—had as¬ 
sumed towanls us the attitude which Mexico did 
towards the United States—not that we declare 
war on them, but that they have brought on the 
war by their own act—and that we are compelled 
to recognize its existence. [Applause.] 

We, I trust, [continued Mr. McV.] are all ani¬ 
mated by the same feeling of kindness and for¬ 
bearance towards those who may have been 
once associated with us in political action. I, 
for one, am willing to this hour, to extend to 
every individual who occupied the position 
assigned to the Central Power, in the address 
read and adopted this evening, provided they 
come back, and unite cordially with us in up¬ 
holding principles long recognized by the dem¬ 
ocratic party, as lying at the foundation of free 
government, the right hand of fellowship. My 
intercourse with them, during my whole life, has 
been one of personal kindness, and to a great ex¬ 
tent also of personal confidence. They have 
had my entire respect, and I believe t have shar¬ 
ed some of theirs. But so long as they continue 
separated from us, and persevere in a course 
calculated, if not designed, to paralyse and dis¬ 
tract the democratic party, and defeat its candi¬ 
dates—I have no alternative but to ti’eat them as 
democrats should treat those who differ wdh 
them in political sentiment. And in this con¬ 
nection, allow me to say, that there is one thing 
in which I desire to see progress made— 
and that is, in the decencies of political discus¬ 
sion. I hdpe, sir, that those who act with us 
in the democratic party, however much they 
may be provoked—whatever epithets may be 
applied to them, and however bitter the denun¬ 
ciations of those from whom we differ—will not 
retort in kind. All know that the best way to 
improve mankind, in any direction, is to teach 
by example—and I hope to see, in the conduct 
and course of every true democrat, such an atti¬ 
tude of moral elevation, in speech and in action, 
as shall challenge respect and imitation. Such 
a course, let me say, involves no compromise of 
principle—no concession of the essential grounds 
of party difference—on these points, there can 
be no concession by sincere and honest demo¬ 
crats. And the present position of the demo¬ 
cratic parly, in reference to those who have 
gone forth from us, is illustrative of this truth. 
It is an anomaly in the history of party, that men 
originally brought together because of a union 
of sentiment and fefeling, should be separated 
as we were, when the men to whom I have 
alluded seceded, and undertook to form a sepa¬ 
rate organization. The idea of men being asso¬ 
ciated as partizans, except to advance common 
principles, is absurd and^unnatural. I say also, 
that it is impossible that men differing in princi¬ 
ple should act together. A party necessarily 
must be congruous—composed of those who 
agree in sentiment—not of those who quarrel.— 
The principle of brotherhood is the bond of 
union, with political as with other associations. 
From those who differ with us, we have nothing 
to expect but denunciation. This is rather to be 
desired than deprecated—because it defines the 
relative positions of the assailed anil the assail¬ 
ants. No doubt the central power will fulmi¬ 
nate its wrath against us as heretofore. No 
doubt, we shall be the object of renewed assault 
from that quarter. No doubt every man of us 
will be the target of abuse and insult, for daring 
to uphold in this emergency, the true democra¬ 
cy. What I wish to inculcate, is this—not only 
union among ourselves, but forbearance towards 
our adversaries—that we may, by such a course, 
commend ourselves and our principles to the 
commendation of mankind. We are now going 





12 


forward, as I trust, in a course, which will rally 
around us every man in the community who has 
the interests of the democratic parly a't heart.— 
If we have been heretofore led by those who 
held official position and power, we, I trust, are 
now entering' upon a new era, in which every 
man is to perform that part in the government 
of the country, whicli belongs to a republican. 
He is to think, act and decide for himself. His 
opinions are not to be moulded by other men.— 
We are thus destined, I trust, to give a moral 
tone of elevation to our whole community—and 
make ourselves practically, what we are in 
theory, a people governing ourselves. This is 
true democracy. The people must become sub¬ 
stantially—as they are in name—the rulers. The 
impress of the popular will, truly expressed, 
must be stamped upon our governmental policy. 
Then shall we have a republic in its highest 
perfection and essence—then shall we have a 
government controlled by the people them¬ 
selves—a government as perfect as it is practi¬ 
cable to make any thing human. It is our duty 
in this emergency, to support a party—not for 
party’s sake—not that we may secure the places 
or the spoils of office—for party is only the 
means, the instrument, for the advancement of 
principles, which we hold to be essential and 
right—but to cany out high governmental pur¬ 
poses, having relation to the well-being of man, 
not only here, but abroad. 

Our country is now engaged in a foreign war. 
Our army is in Mexico. When this war com¬ 
menced, our people, through their representa¬ 
tives, all with one voice—I may say with one 
voice—for the exceptions were so few as to make 
the vote all but unanimous—declared that this 
war was brought on us by the wrongful act of 
Mexico. Every heart beat in unison with the 
action of the government, when it declared that 
war existed—and in unison with the sentiment, 
that it W’as the duty of every American citizen 
to stand forward boldly and openly in vindica¬ 
tion of the national honor and rights. Sir, that 
was a proud day in th'e history of our republic. 
Every patriotic heart rejoiced, that whatever 
heretofore had been the history of the country 
in times past, we at least, had so far advanced in 
a spirit of patriotism and devotion to the nation¬ 
al honor, that every man seemed ready to stand 
by h is country, at all hazards. We rejoiced that 
there were none of those left among us, who had 
heretofore had no vision except to see their 
country always in the wrong, and its enemies 
always in the right. [Applause.] But original 
sin is not yet eradicated from the United States. 
The old leaven of federalism still remains, and 
that little leaven has leavened the whole lump. 
[Laughter.] Contrast the attitude of our repre¬ 
sentatives in Congress now with what it was on 
the day to which I have alluded. What a morti¬ 
fying—what a humiliating contrast! All the old 
sentimentality-all the old fanaticism—all the 
old blue-lights—with the modern “fire-brands ” 
to boot—are shedding their glare around us.— 
Sir, who are they that are our reliance lor the 
support of the honor of the country in this cri¬ 
sis? Who? Sir, do not we, with a few honora¬ 
ble exceptions in the whig ranks, occupy our 
old position in-the last war, on the side of the 
country? It is the democratic party, and the 
democratic party alone, that now sfanils by the 
government. When I say the democratic parly, 
I mean the real democratic party—not your 
spurious, proviso, conditional democrats. [Ap¬ 
plause.] I mean those who would support the 
country, as the whigs in ’40 sustained Harrison 
and Tyler, without a why or wherefore. [Ap¬ 
plause.] These are the democrats of the real 
genuine stamp. And where you see a man hes* 


itating and calculating and higgling as to the ef¬ 
fect of supporting his country and its constituted 
authorities, rest assured his heart isagainst you. 
[Applause.] He has gene over to the enemy.— 
And though now they may not believe it—I 
know— 

[Here the lights were suddenly extinguished, 
leaving the chamber in total darkness—some per¬ 
son doubtless of the free speech” and “corner 
stone” faction, having found access to the lower 
room in the Capital, where the gas is conducted 
to the Hall, and cut off' the supply—to the great 
delight of a knot of the same partizans who 
formed a select party in the gallery, who shout¬ 
ed and stamped in exstacies at this characteristic 
specimen of New-Scotlandism—and by prolong¬ 
ing the din, sought to disperse the convention in 
confusion. But the device failed—every person 
present, audience and delegates, retaining their 
places until the hall was re-lighted.] 

Mr. MeVEAN resumed:—I understand (said 
he) that this is a weak device of the enemy—of 
men who love darkness rather than light be¬ 
cause their deeds are evil. [Laughter and ap¬ 
plause.] The broad glare of the light of truth 
ofifended them. [Renewed laughter and ap¬ 
plause.] But I learn also who they are that 
have done this thing. I understand that there 
is good evidence that they are of the guerilla 
school of politicians—and that they exhibit one 
of the characteristic tiaits of that class of out¬ 
laws. One of the officers of this House, on go¬ 
ing to (he place of ambuscade, found them on 
the retreat! [Laughter and cheers.] The main 
body are in yonder chapparal. [Pointing to the 
gallery.] But what else are we to expect of 
such men? They who feel that their position is 
desperate, naturally resort to desperate means— 
and srenerally fail at that. I am mistaken if this 
exhibition of the rowdyism which had its full 
development at New Scotland, will not re-act 
with the force of that disgraceful affair, on the 
heads of all concerned, directly or remotely. 

Mr. McV. went on. I was speaking, when 
this interruption occurred, of the duty of sua- 
tainiiig the honor of the country in the present 
war. I remarked that this duty had devolved, 
as heretofore in time of war, on the democratic 
party. 1 wish to say now that I did not intend 
in that remark to include in the scope of its 
censure, those who from misapprehension or 
from the habit of following men whose designs 
are evil, and evil only, have plaeed themselves 
in the opposite category. I intended to speak 
ouly of that class of men who assume to be lead- 
ei's-some of whom, stung by my allusions to 
them, were probably concerned in turning this 
darkness on us. [Applause.] Sir, one of the 
greatest evils of the central power, was the con¬ 
trolling influence which it exerted over well- 
meaning men—men who had been taught, un¬ 
der the old regime, habitually to look on the in¬ 
dividuals composing that potent engine, as the 
dispensers not only of patronage, but of sound 
views and opinions. I may be wrong, sir, but I 
fear we shall still suffer under the evil of this old 
habit. You will perceive from the current of the 
address read here this afternoon, what my ideas 
are on this suViject. They are briefly these— 
that the new constitution, when it shalt go into 
full and practical operation, will so far emanci¬ 
pate the public mind as toleave it comparatively 
at least free and virtuous. The struggle now go¬ 
ing on in this state, is a struggle to shake off 
the pernicious influences, which under the old 
Constitution, were exerted over freedom of 
opinion. And I may venture to say, that no par¬ 
ty could come into power under that Constitution 
from the very nature of the government itself, 
without being invested with and exercising the 




13 


same pernicious influence over the public will. 
I do not intend to say that the men who 
wiehled the central power in this state were 
of themselves bad men. They were good 
men. I'he fault was not theirs. It was the 
fault of the system. And the great fault of 
that system was, that they who acquired pow¬ 
er under it, could themselves perpetuate it in 
in their own hands—and diil so perpetuate it.— 
This is human nature. The whole history of 
man is an exemplification of the fact that he 
will cling to power, with the grasp of death.— 
The struggle against power is the struggle of 
freedom, and in that struggle, all governments 
and all people are more or less engaged. I 
think sir, when the evils of the old system shall 
be entirely eradicated, that we shall have better 
times, so far as regards ourselves, and the peo¬ 
ple of the whole Slate also, from the fact that in¬ 
dividual opinion will then be entirely free—and 
thus free, will be right, and inevitably result in 
good government. And I beg leave to impress 
upon all democrats, and upon all others, the 
great duty of putting forth our best efforts, to 
carry out the doctrines and principles of free 
government. 

And here let me suggest what to me appears 
to be our duty in reference to the existing dilfi- 
culty with Mexico. In this, I am sure the whole 
democratic party will agree with me—that 
it is our duty to turn this war to the best advan¬ 
tage, not for ourselves only, but for mankind.— 
I do not think the acquisition of Texas or Mex¬ 
ico, or an}' portion of either, is to be desired so 
much for the benefit of ourselves, as for the 
benefit of mankind. Our army is now in posses¬ 
sion of the larger portion of Mexico. What is 
our duty to Mexico? No man can tell what a 
day or a week may bring forth. We are bound 
to take and occupy such adjacent portions of 
Mexico as shall besi conduce to advance the in¬ 
terests of man. Individually, I hold, that hav¬ 
ing got possession of a portion of Mexico, in 
consequence of her having brought a war on us, 
by her own wrong act—holding now that terri¬ 
tory by conquest and of right—we are bound 
to make such use of it as shall best promote 
the interests of man at large. I mean that we 
should secure a portion of her territory which 
is fertile, not for the use of our own inhabitants, 
but for the use of the inhabitants of the world. 
What is now the condition of mankind? A large 
portion of our fellow-beings are starvina:. Mex¬ 
ico and the United States both possess territory 
of a character so fertile as to be capable of feed¬ 
ing the whole world. Yet the institutions of 
the old world have reduced a large portion of 
their population to absolute want. Now, I say, 
it is our first duly in advancing the interests of 
man, to hold that country by such a tenure as 
will allow all the inhabitants of the world, now 
starving for bread, to go there and enjoy its 
abundance I insist that it is our duty to turn our 
advantages to the benefit of mankind at laige, 
and not to our own aggrandizement. We are 
bound to hold our acquisitions in trust tor the 
benefit of those who may occupy it. And it is 
our duty to support and uphold the administra¬ 
tion of our government, in conducting the war 
to a^successful close. That is the duty of every 
patriot in time of war. And I do hope, though 
the prognostications are not favorable, that there 
will be patriotism enough in our public councils 
to furnish the means to place our Government in 
a high and ennobling position before the world— 
that such supplies of men and money will be voted 
as will bring the war to a speedy determination. 
We may rest assured, that so long as we present to 
Mexico and the world, the spectacle of a divided 
people, we are crippling the power of our gov¬ 


ernment, encouraging the enemy to continue the 
war, and retarding the advent of peace. If they 
who are so fond of peace, and so much opposed 
to war, would only unite with tlie democratic 
party in bringing it to a close, by the prompt 
supply of men and means, the war would very 
soon terminate. I concur in the remark of the 
President of this convention in his Opening ad¬ 
dress, that war is at any time a calamity. Nor 
has this mode of settling difficulties come down 
to us with much to commend it to favor. I hope 
to live to see the day when under the benign in¬ 
fluences of a free commercial system and free 
trade, we shall have other arbiters than armies 
to settle national controversies. I believe that 
the United States of America are now going 
forward in a c areer of enlightened and liberal 
policy that will ultimately lead to such results. 

Mr. McVean apologized for having occupied 
so long the time of the convention—and for the 
desultory manner in which he had expressed 
himself—and thanking the convention for the at¬ 
tention which had been given him throughout, 
yielded the floor. 

Mr. Thompson followed Mr. McVean. He 
fully concurred in the remark of the gentleman 
from New York, that this was a good time to be¬ 
come acquainted personally with each other, and 
to interchange views freely on the great subjects 
now in agitation before the people and, to the 
democratic party of the State and Union, of such 
high moment and interest. I believe, (said he,) 
that this convention is about to form an epoch in 
the history of the democratic party of this State. 
I feel—perhaps it is a mere matter of feeling or 
sentiment with me, growing out of the peculiar 
views which I entertain of what that great party 
is destined to accomplish—that such is to be the 
result of this gathering of the representatives of 
the democracy of the State. I, sir, regard the 
success of the democratic party as the success of 
the cause of humanity itself. And I think the 
scene of the great work on our hands lies out¬ 
side of our own State, and beyond the limits of 
this Union. Sir, let us see if I have over-esti¬ 
mated the responsibilities devolving upon us, as 
democrats, and the duty we owe to ourselves and 
to mankind. I regard the democratic principle 
of the equality of man, which has ever pervaded 
the masses of our people, as the true secret of 
the progress of this great nation to its present 
high position of prosperity and happiness; and 
I regard the continued practical operation of 
that principle as the sure guaranty of its future 
prosperity and greatness. The first formal 
promulgation of that fundamental principle of 
the democratic creed, was made in the immor¬ 
tal Declaration of ’76. The effect of that de¬ 
claration was at once felt, far and wide.— 
It taught men to respect and appreciate them- 
seives, and to take that position which belong¬ 
ed to them, as the legitimate source of all poli¬ 
tical power, and the rightful arbiters of their 
own political destinies. The next, and the in¬ 
evitable result of the promulgation of the great 
principle of human rights, was the achievement 
of the Independence oif the thirteen colonies.— 
Nothing but a proper appreciation of the rights 
of the masses, carried us through the great Re¬ 
volutionary struggle, and gave to these United 
States a place among the nations of the earth.— 
The next great result, following in the great 
train of events which the democratic principle 
has developed, was the effort to secure to pos¬ 
terity free institutions. That was accomplished 
iu the adoption of the constitution of the U. S.—» 
an instrument, which, though it did not accom¬ 
plish all that the friends of equality could have 
wished, did all that it was possible to secure, ia 



14 


a bond of union between the diversified and in 
some aspects conflicting- intrests and views of 
diflferent sections of the country. It was the re¬ 
sult of compromise and concession, as all know 
—and whatever of feeling may have been exhib¬ 
ited at the time, or may exist now, because it 
did not secure to an unfortunate race all that 
was then or may now be desired—all concur that 
the result of the compact has been to secure to 
the Union, now and forever, incalculable bless¬ 
ings—blessings whose influences have been felt 
all over the civilized world. Our progress from 
that moment has indeed been onward and upward. 
New territory has been acquired, all over which 
our free institutions have been extended. The 
pur chase of Louisiana was the first advance made 
in the enlargement of the republic. The annex¬ 
ation of Texas followed, and the area of the 
Union extended still further. But I hold, sir, 
that the destiny of the republic is not yet accom¬ 
plished. The genius and tendency of the De¬ 
mocratic principle is progress, expansion, and 
there is much ground yet left for its triumph on 
this continent. If I thought otherwise, I should 
not be here. I think its destiny and office is to 
give free institutions to all parts of this conti¬ 
nent, and when that is done, to give free institu¬ 
tions to the world. [Applause.] I trust we are 
about to contribute to this result, and it is be¬ 
cause 1 think so, that I am here, and am proud 
to be here. Now sir, providentially, as I view 
it, events have taken such a turn, as to present a 
new opening in Mexico, where free institutions 
can be extended over more territory. [Ap¬ 
plause and laughter]. And yet there are those 
among us and in other states of the Union, who 
would resort to provisoes and other devices to 
retard and embarass this glorious consummation 
—who would prevent, if they could, the acquisi¬ 
tion of more territory, and thus impede the pro¬ 
gress of free government and free institutions. 
For that reason sir, we should takd a position on 
this great question which will give an impulse 
to the destinies of this republic. Sir, it is not to 
be disguised that we have among us those who 
view with distrust and fear this tendency to ex¬ 
pansion in our system, and who to prevent it are 
busy in efforts, open or covert, to embarass the 
prosecution of the war. But for this, I should 
have felt little or no interest in this convention. 
But seeing this effort and these pretexts to arrest 
the war, to recall our troops, to assume a defen¬ 
sive line and relinquish all our acquisitions so 
nobly won, Itconfess sir, that I have felt a deep 
interest to contribute all my efforts in the oth¬ 
er direction. Sir, who desires to conquer 
Mexico, for the mere sake of conquest? Who 
desires to subjugate Mexico for the purpose 
of making her people slaves? For one, sir, 
and I am not alone in this, I desire to see our 
free institutions extended over that beautiful 
country, or some part of it. Nor would I 
stop at a line either, [Applause,] but would take 
the whole. [Renewed applause and laughter.] 
Understand me, gentlemen, I would not take it 
for ourselves—but for the benefit of the Mexi¬ 
cans themselves—and for the oppressed of all 
nations who choose to go there. [Applause.] — 
Whilst there is a scarcity of land in other coun¬ 
tries, and millions of the human family are in a 
starving condition, why should not these exten¬ 
sive and fertile regions be opened to them, to 

• enjoy them under the benign sway of our gov¬ 
ernment? What if there are three millions of 
slaves at the south. Should the progress of de • 

• mocratic principles be arrested in tneir course 
on that account? They are slaves, and will re¬ 
main slaves, whether we lake Mexico or not— 
whether we take part of it or not. Shall we, be¬ 
cause we cannot give freedom to a handful com¬ 


paratively of slaves, arrest the onward march of 
democracy and its extension over this great con¬ 
tinent? [Applause.] I trust not, sir. And from 
what I see around me, the indications are as de¬ 
cided as they are gratifying, that we are prepar¬ 
ed and eager to do what we can to give an im¬ 
petus to democratic progress in Mexico. Ev'ery 
friend of man must say—‘avail yourselves of the 
opportunity presented in the south-west to do 
the most good to humanity—take the whole of 
it.’ [Applause.] But what means this Proviso 
agitation? What is the object and effect of it? 
Who does not know that it originated in hostili¬ 
ty to the administration? Who does not know 
that it was designed to embarrass the prosecution 
of the war, to clos: the appropriation bills, to 
stop supplies to our gallant army, to force them 
from the field of glory into a disgraceful retreat— 
and failing in that, to make it the pretext for re¬ 
fusing indemnity? In a word that it is the cry of 
no territory and no indemnity? It is so under¬ 
stood where I live. It is so understood by the 
abolitionists and whigs. [Laughter.] Ifes sir, 

I have heard some of these politicians say—I 
mean those who make no secret of their hostili¬ 
ty to the government and the war—I have heard 
these men deridingly say—‘ this war and this 
glory are expensive luxuries—we shall be taxed 
for it, by and by, and then we ’ll see what its 
all worth.’ Rely upon it these partizans, as 
well as the proviso democrats, are not only at 
heart opposed to the war, not so much on ac¬ 
count of the war itself or the expense of it—as 
because they fear the acquisition of more terri¬ 
tory, the extension of democratic principles, and 
the glory which thev fear will accrue from such 
a consummation to the national administration. 

I believe all this provisoism is whiggery in dis¬ 
guise—and worse than whiggery, because more 
covert in its assaults upon the government and 
the country, and coming from those of our own 
household, more difficult to meet* It is a scheme 
to arrest the march of free institutions—and 
therefore am I here to contribute what I can 
to strengthen the administration—and expose 
and foil its enemies. I go for the Address— 
the whole of it—as I go for the whole of 
Mexico. [Laughter ami applause.] 1 in¬ 
sist, sir, that we should take this broad and 
liberal view of this question. We should 
look to the interests of humanity at large, in this 
matter of the acquisition of territory, and when¬ 
ever Providence points out the way, as 1 believe 
most religiously Providence does now point the 
way to Mexico, we should follow it up, and if 
we should happen to anticipate a little the bene- 
ficient designs of Providence, [applause] nobody 
can complain, provided we give Mexicb free in¬ 
stitutions. [Renewed applause]. Fifty years 
hence, sir, this Union will number one hundred 
millions of people. The energy and enterprise 
of this people will more than overrun this conti¬ 
nent, by that time. I sir, am a ‘ manifest desti¬ 
ny’ man. [Laughter.] I believe we are destined 
to Overspread this continent, and lhal everything 
within and around us points to that result. We 
want room for this expansion, and we are call¬ 
ed upon by every considaration as democrats, 
and as men, to make all the acquisitions of terri¬ 
tory which opportunity shall offer, in every and 
all directions, north ae well as south. I regard 
the vigorous prosecution of this war, and the 
support of the administration which has the 
management of it, as a great national question, 
involving interests far beyond the present gen¬ 
eration or age. I regard it as a question in 
which all mankind are alike interested. And it 
is a question, on which we are peculiarly called 
on to speak out. The democratic party of this 
State aided in—may I not say decided the ques- 




15 


tion of the presidency at the election in ’44. The 
democratic party of this State turned the scale in 
favor of James K. Polk. Upon his administra¬ 
tion has devolved the conduct of this war with 
Mexico—and gloriously has it met the expecta¬ 
tions of the democracy, in this crisis. But in 
this the administration has incurred hostility, 
not from open enemies alone, but from pretend¬ 
ed friends. The proviso men have substantially 
gone over to the opposition on this question, and 
by dint of clamor and a renewal of sectional and 
irritating issues, have sought to bring the war 
and the administration into disfavor and re¬ 
proach. In this emergency, even a whig gov¬ 
ernor, to his honor be it spoken, has felt called 
upon, in an official message, to come out boldly 
for the war, and its rigorous prosecution. [Ap¬ 
plause.] Shall it be said that we—the friends of 
the administration—the party that placed it in 
power—have less of patriotism or democracy 
than a whig executive? Shall we not speak out 
also? In this connection, I must be permitted to 
sey—that the present whig governor is not 
alone in the course he has taken—but that the 
whig party is becoming humanized. [Laugh¬ 
ter.] They do not all burn blue lights. [Re¬ 
newed laughter. I do not pretend to account 
for this—but whether it be from motives of 
policy or patriotism, I care not. I honor those 
of the opposite party who contribute their in¬ 
fluence to sustain the war—no matter what the 
motive—and I point to their example, as a rebuke 
and a scandal to those who pretending to be 
with us, have deserted their country and their 
party, in time of war. [Applause.] 

But (said Mr. T.) I have detained the conven¬ 
tion too long. My views, I believe are pretty 
well understood. They are mine, and I speak 
for nobody but myself and a few democrats up 
in Washington county. [Laughter.] We never 
get a chance, up there, to be heard on any of 
these questions. [Renewed laughter.] Seeing, 
therefore, an opening here, I availed myself of 
the opportunity to speak out for myself and 
them. [Applause.] 

Mr. CoRNiNG’s motion was adopted. 

Mr. Shepard, of New York, offered the 
following: 

Whereas, misrepresentations intended to pre¬ 
judice and mislead the public mind have been 
industriously circulated in relation to the regu¬ 
larity and high ground of democratic right on 
which this convention rests its proceedings and 
action—therefore be it 

Resolved, That a committee of eight members 
of this convention—one from each judicial dis¬ 
trict—be appointed by the chair, to prepare and 
publish at their convenience, a statement of facts 
setting forth the grounds of regular democratic 
proceeding and duty to the democratic cause, 
which characterize this convention, and con¬ 
stitute its vindication from the aspersions and 
misstatements of those who have openly desert¬ 
ed that cause, derided its usages, and defeated its 
tickets. 

On motion of Mr. Caldwell, of M®nt- 
gomery, the restitution was adopted, and 
The President named the committee as 
follows:— 

Committee on Mr. Shepard's Resolution —Messrs. 
Shepard, of New York; Borland, of Orange; 
Bromley, of Clinton; Lawyer, of Schoharie; 
Moulton, of Oneida; Humphrey, of Tompkins; 
Stevens, of Steuben; Follett, of Genesee. 

The convention then adjourned, to meet at 
the Mayor’s court room, in the City Hall—to¬ 
morrow morning at 11 o’clock. 


SECOND DAY. 


Thursdayy A. M. 

The convention re-assembled in the Mayor’s 
Court Room in the City Hall, at 11 o’clock, 
A.M. 

Mr. McVean read the following letters;— 

Oqdensbukgh, 20th Jan,, 1848. 

E. Croswell, esq. : 

Dear sir—Please say to the democracy on the 
26th, that there are yet left some true democrats 
in old St. Lawrence. The county organization 
is as yet in the hands of the corner stone, or Wit- 
mot Proviso faction, but still we have a few good 
and true democrats, that are not under the lead 
of Judson, King & Co. We live in hopes of a 
brighter day. We trust and believe that old 
St. Lawrence will come right side up, in the 
campaign of 1848. The democratic masses in 
this county have been deceived—there is no 
doubt but they are with us, if we had the means 
to reach them. The old and pampered leaders. 
King, Judson & Co., the assumed abolitionist and 
Wilmot proviso champions in this county, are 
against us. The whole government patronage, 
in this county, is in the hands of the disorgani- 
zers. We have no means of defending ourselves. 
We have no democratic paper in the county.— 
But we will stand by the cause, and the masses 
will come to the standard of the true democracy. 

We intended to send a delegate to Albany.— 
The democracy selected myself as such delegate, 
but it is impossible for me to leave home at the 
present time. The absence of delegates from 
this county, is not owing to want of patriotism. 
We have the utmost anxiety for the success of 
true democratic principles. We will do every 
thing in our power to carry out the plan that 
may be adopted by the convention to send dela- 
gates to the national convention. Hoping that 
the course of the convention may be such as to 
meet the entire approbation of the democracy of 
the state and Union, 

1 remain, yours respectfully, 

P. ROBBINS. 

Ellicotttille, Jan. 23, ’48. 

Dear sir:—I regret to inform you that David 
Day, esq., who was intending to start this morn¬ 
ing for the State Convention at Albany, met with 
a serious accident on Saturday evening, which 
will prevent his attending as he anticipated. He 
came on here for the purpose of starting from 
this place, and on turning the corner of the 
street where a pit hole had been dug for a base¬ 
ment cellar, walked off in the dark, and was so 
injured that he is at present in a very critical 
situation. I regret this not only on his own ac¬ 
count, but on account of our district, which, by 
this accident, will not be represented. 

Yours very truly, 

R. H. SHANKLAND. 


E. Croswell, esq.: 

Dear sir—I have been appointed a delegate to« 
the State Convention at Albany on the 26th inst. 
from the southern assembly district of Allegany 
county. It would afford me great pleasure to 
be there, and join with the true democracy of 
the state in the objects of the proposed conven¬ 
tion, but the circumstances of my business and 
family at this time will not permit my absence* 
from home. 

Yours, respectfully, 

Almowd, 20 January, 1343. J. ANGELL. 





16 


Resolutions. 

Mr. Shepard, from the committee on res¬ 
olutions, submitted the following-, which he 
read. They were received with marked tokens 
of approval: 

Resolved, That the proposed Utica conven¬ 
tion is factious in its organization and its ob¬ 
jects, and that if delegates from that body shall 
claim admission to the next Democratic Balti¬ 
more Convention, we rely with entire confidence 
upon their rejection, because the Utica conven¬ 
tion was called by a minority of the members of 
the democratic caucus of the last legislature, and 
directed to assemble at a period after the term 
of office of those who called it had expired, not¬ 
withstanding an unvarying democratic usage to 
the contrary; and also, because the late Syracuse 
Convention, chosen ten months after the elec¬ 
tion of the members of assembly for the year 
1847, appointed a State Central Committee, in 
accordance with established custom, and clothed 
the same with power to call this convention. 

Resolved, That the late Herkimer convention 
merits the severe condemnation of the democ¬ 
racy of this state, because it was held for the 
purpose of defeating a state ticket regularly 
nominated by the Syracuse Convention—a body 
chosen by the whole democratic party, and of 
which the leaders of the Herkimer faction re¬ 
cognized the validity, by participating in its ac¬ 
tion to the last moment of its existence,—thus 
binding themselves upon principle to the will 
of the majority there expressed; and also, be¬ 
cause it was held for the purpose of introducing 
the Wilmot proviso as a test of democracy—a 
principle first promulgated by the whig party,— 
fterwards adopted by them in this state as a 
distinctive tenet of their creed, and of which the 
inevitable consequence must be to prevent the 
acquisition of any territory from Mexico, since 
it is not for a moment to be believed that two- 
thirds of the National Senate will ratify a treaty 
of peace securing any cession of territory sub¬ 
ject to the principle of that proviso. 

Resolved, That the institution of slavery is do¬ 
mestic in its character, and the subject of legis¬ 
lation by the people of the States and Territo¬ 
ries where the same may exist. That we regard 
any attempts of the abolitionists of the North, to 
remove it either by direct interference with it 
as an existing institution, or by a denial to the 
people of the States and Territories of the 
right to legislate upon it, as hostile to the re¬ 
cognized sovereignty of the people—as a viola¬ 
tion of the compromises of the constitution—as 
repugnant to the welfare of that Union which 
had its origin in a just consideration and ac¬ 
knowledgment of the rights of every section, 
and which has risen to its present grandeur and 
dignity among the nations of the earth by a mu¬ 
tual spirit of conciliation and forbearance, with¬ 
out which it could not have been maintained— 
that the injustice of making the Wilmot proviso 
an essential element of the democratic belief, as 
the Herkimer convention have already done, and 
as the leaders of that movement propose to do in 
the Utica convention, is only equalled by its ab¬ 
surdity, because as we have before stated, it wilt 
unavoidably prevent that indemnity for the ex¬ 
penses of the war, and for the claims of our citi¬ 
zens, which is now one of (he purposes of the 
contest—because the soil and climate of Califor¬ 
nia will not permit the development of its re¬ 
sources by slave labor—and because the laws of 
that territory prohibit slavery, and it is a well- 
settled principle of jurisprudence, that the mere 
act of acquiring a foreign province works no 


change in its municipal laws, but only in the 
allegiance of its people. 

Resolved, That we give our most cordial and 
hearty support to the administration of our 
country in the existing war; that the contest 
was begun by the act of Mexico; that by the 
annexation of Texas we were pledged to pro¬ 
tect her territory to the Rio Grande, that be¬ 
ing her boundary, as declared by the act of De¬ 
cember 19th, 1836, and recognized by repeated 
acts of her sovereign jurisdiction; that the ad¬ 
vance of our army to the Rio Grande was not 
only entirely proper, but eminently demanded 
by the menaces of the Mexican Government, 
which before the annexation of Texas had de¬ 
clared that they would regard that act as a cause 
of war, and hold us responsible therefor. And if 
under these circumstances,the administration had 
neglected to protect the soil of the Union, or even 
to occupy debateable ground, which it was advi¬ 
sed would be wrested from us by the hostile act 
of Mexico, it would have proved recreant to its 
high duties and unworthy the further confidence 
of the people. 

Resolved, That there are but three modes of 
terminating the war with Mexico, namely—a 
withdrawal of our troops—a defensive line, and 
an entire subjugation of that country, unless we 
can obtain an honorable treaty of peace from an 
effective Mexican government; That the first is 
a whig proposition, receiving the sanction of 
only those professing democrats with whom the 
honor of the country is secondary to their own 
interests and prejudices—it proposes to cast^ the 
expenses of the war upon us—to leave undecided 
the questions of difficulty with Mexico, and to 
deprive our people of manifold advantages prov¬ 
identially cast in their way: The second mode 
would require an expenditure of money esti¬ 
mated at from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000 per an¬ 
num, for years, or until a treaty of peace could 
be effected,—it would protract the war by re¬ 
moving its seat from the vital parts of the ene¬ 
my’s country,—it would turn away from the na¬ 
tional treasury the revenues of the Mexican Go¬ 
vernment, estimated at from $10,000,000 to $15,- 
000,000 per annum,—and it would entail a mer¬ 
ciless border warfare upon our people, the cause 
of numberless pronunciamentos and revolutions 
in Mexico: The third mode, therefore, only re 
mains to us. If we cannot obtain peace by 
force, we must occupy the country as a con¬ 
quered province, and such an occupation, by 
opening ready avenues to our trade, our manu¬ 
factures, and agricultural skill, would prove a 
vast benefit to the people of Mexico as well 
as to ourselves: That in the event of a treaty of 
peace contracted by a responsible government, 
with ample securities for its performance, we are 
in favor of a complete repayment of the expenses 
of the war by a cession of Mexican territory, with 
a view to secure the rising commerce of the Pa¬ 
cific, and draw from Asia her hoarded wealth 
lor the benefit of our people. 

Resolved, That the Chief Magistrate of the 
United States and the Cabinet, merit the warmest 
commendation of the people for the energy and 
the wisdom with which the war has been con¬ 
ducted, and for the stern and unswerving de¬ 
mocracy of their principles, and that we are 
highly gratified that this state has given to the 
cabinet a citizen who has proved himself ade¬ 
quate to every exigency of his position. 

Resolved, That the deeds of our brave armies 
in Mexico reflect an undying lustre upon the 
American name and character—that they have 
borne their long and painful marches through a 
hostile country, their exposure to the rigors of 
the Mexican climate, and their sufferings from 
loathsome and deadly disease, with a fortitude 



17 


equal to that which distinguished our fathers in 
the Revolution—that in every battle from Palo 
Alto to the last fierce struggle before the gates 
of Mexico, they have shown an unflinching cour¬ 
age and an undying enthusiasm which prove be¬ 
yond doubt that the Republic may rely with en¬ 
tire confidence, in every national contest, 
upon the arms of its citizen soldiery: That 
we rejoice that the sons of New York in 
Mexico have signalized themselves by all these 
qualities, and by their heroism elevated the cha¬ 
racter of their state, and triumphantly repelled 
the aspersions of an unscrupulous federal press: 
That the Republic owes a sacred debt to the 
families of those soldiers who have fallen or be- 
became crippled while sustaining the glory of 
our arms, and that it is bound to make provision 
for the maintenance of their wives and the ed¬ 
ucation of their children. 

Resolved, That the revenue prineiple is the 
only one upon which a tariff can be wisely laid 
by our national government—that we approve of 
the tariff of 1846 because it is framed upon this 
principle—because it has aided the agricultural 
interest of our country—which we believe ought 
to be peculiarly regarded as the source of wealth 
and national power, and because it is a gratifying 
evidence of the progress of the people towards 
free trade. 

Resolved, That the Independent Treasury 
has answered the anticipations and desires of the 
democracy of this state; that it has rendered the 
currency more sound and healthy, by bringing 
it nearer to the constitutional standard; that it 
has removed the pernicious influences of the 
banks over the government, which were amongst 
the worst features of the National and State Bank 
deposite systems; that it has exercised a healthy 
influence upon our commerce, by preventing ex¬ 
cessive importations, and that it promises to ar¬ 
rest, in a considerable degree, those violent 
expansions and contractions of our jiaper money 
system, which have so many times involved all 
the great interests of our country in one common 
calamity. 

Resolved, That we recommend to the demo¬ 
cratic electors of this state the district system of 
choosing delegates to the Baltimore convention 
—because it is democratic and in accordance 
with the principles of popular government; be¬ 
cause it takes from those who have been consid¬ 
ered the leaders of the democratic irarty in this 
state, the jiower to nominate a set of delegates in 
violation of the feelings and opinions of large 
sections of the state who are entitled to be heard 
fairly upon every question of party politics; and 
because it gives to the humblest citizen the right 
to express his preferences in reference to candi¬ 
dates for the Presidency, at the primary election 
in his own district. 

That the objection that the vote of the state of 
New York might be divided in the electoral col¬ 
lege, has no application to the selection of del¬ 
egates to a party convention, and that it would 
be better far that the delegates chosen to the 
Baltimore convention from this state should de¬ 
cide by a majority of voices the Presidential 
candidate of our democracy, than that a few men 
by their influence should control the matter ac¬ 
cording to their own interests, and without re¬ 
ference to th« wishes of the people. 

Resolved, That we regard with just pride the 
rapid advance in the revenues from our works 
of internal improvement, inducing as it lioes the 
certain and early completion of our unfinished 
canals, under the just and equitable tuovisions 
of the constitution; and we are entirely opposed 
to the creation of an\" debt, and to any and every 
attempt to disturb the provisions of the constitu¬ 
tion in relation to the apjilication of any of the 


revenues of the state to the completion of its ca¬ 
nals. 

Mr. CLINTON said he ro.se to urge (he adop¬ 
tion of these resolutions, which in their gener¬ 
al scope and tenor, met with his entire approba¬ 
tion. But (said he) I am sorry to say that I do 
all this with a proviso—and my democratic breth¬ 
ren here assembled in convention, will I am 
sure, understand at once, that this is not a Wil- 
niot proviso. [Applause.] Mr. President, the 
last resolution read, I am not perfectly prepared 
either to oppose or adopt. It involves a topic, I 
am free to confess, which I have not so fully 
considered as to pronounce a definitive opinion 
on it. But so far as these resolutions cover mat¬ 
ters of national moment, I have no ifs, nor buts, 

I nor provisos about it. [Applause.] I rise sir, 
with mingled feelings. I am rejoiced to find so 
much—notwithstanding the dissensions existing 
among us—of the good old staunch democracy 
left, who are ready to assert and vindicate dem¬ 
ocracy—to stand by its oUl usages, and to main¬ 
tain its time honored principles. I rise too with 
regret, in view of the fact that a portion of the 
democracy are not with us. It is a painful con¬ 
sideration that this great parly, undoubtedly pre¬ 
dominant in the Slate and the Union, is not a 
unit, and prepared to come forward as one man 
to the maintenance of its principles. This, sir, 
is a matter of deep and sincere regret. To bring 
about the old state of things—to witness again the 
sublime spectacle which over and overaarain the 
democracy have presented, when pressing for- 
w'ard shoulder to shoulder in support of the con¬ 
stitution, in its spirit and vigoi—I would be wil¬ 
ling sir to sacrifice any thing—any thing—with 
this proviso—any thing but the principles in 
which I was nurtured—any thing but the sacred 
compromises of the constitution—any thing but 
those docrines and principles which lie at the ve¬ 
ry foundation of our party. [Applause.] Those 
who have voluntarily separated themselves from 
it, are separated on two points. One is the ques¬ 
tion of regularity. That they are wrong there, 
is a matter too clear for argument. But that 
many honest and sincere men may have been 
deluded on this point, T do not question. Anoth¬ 
er dilfercnce—the main difference—is the Wil- 
mot Proviso. And with reference to that— 
though I trust there are others here compe¬ 
tent to do it more effectually than I can hope 
to—I will venture to take my share in the de¬ 
bates of this convention. 

This Proviso, Mr. Presivent, is an abstraction 
—and like all abstractions is somewhat Protean 
in its character. It is not a thing that you can 
grasp, and be sure you have got it. It is at one 
time a proviso—at another time it is a sentiment 
—and now I believe it has subsided into a crisis. 
It IS a crisis. We will meet it, sir, as a crisis. 
There is a crisis—not one that demands that the 
North should assault or attack the South—not any 
thing that requires a democrat to abandon his 
party and throw the power of the government 
into the hamls of the old enemy—but there is a 
crisis which calls upon every good citizen to 
come up to the aid of the country in time of 
war—no matter what administration may for the 
time being conduct its afiairs—a crisis that im- 
jiels every citizen, without regard to party, to 
press forward to the aid of that administration. 
I, sir, am a northern man—I have northern feel¬ 
ings. I am proud, sir, of having been born in 
the State of New York. There are perhaps some 
hereditary obligations resting on me to love and 
to honor the state. [Applause.] And I do love 
and honor it. But whilst I am juoud of my con¬ 
nection whh it, I cannot hut lemember that I am 
also citizen of the United States—and I have 





18 


•• 


an affection for every portion of my broad and 
beautiful country. I am proud of the people of 
the States of this Union. Sir, I love every por¬ 
tion of it, from Maine to Texas. [Applause.] 
I will maintain the interests of every part of it. 
I will oppose those who would sow dissension 
between its several sections. I will fight for 
Texas—I will fight for Georgia—for South Car¬ 
olina—as readily and freely as I would fight for 
New Hampshire—for Nevv—no not New York 
[Applause]—but as freely as I would for any 
other state in the confederacy. I will except 
“ my own dear native land.” [Renewed ap 
plause.) 

Mr. President, there are those who talk about 
being guided by northern principles and north¬ 
ern lights. I know not, sir—perhaps I do not 
exactly comprehend—to what allusion is intend¬ 
ed. But, sir, if they mean those new lights 
which have flickered up in New Hampshire, or 
at Herkimer—I say that they are not bright 
enough nor broad enough to point out to me, as 
a democrat, any new course of duly. Sir, they 
may be truly called northern lights. They flame 
up, as do those phosporescent lights of the bar¬ 
ren north, when the earth is divested of verdure 
and stern winter reigns—shedding a ghastly and 
unnatural, a useless, light on our frozen scenery. 
[Applause.] They are not for me, nor for you. 
Thank God, we have belter lights to go by. 
[Renewed applause.] We have, sir, a light, 
which like the sun at its meridian, shines on our 
whole country—which illuminates equally and 
alike. North and South, East, West and Centre— 
which beautifies and irradiates all, and blesses 
all. [Prolonged applause.] We have the bril¬ 
liant, genial, vivifying expositions of political 
doctrine and precept, emanating from the fathers 
of the Republic, and the founders of the demo¬ 
cratic party. These are my lights. [Cheers and 
applause.] There may be a dim and sickly radi¬ 
ance about these northern lights; but they after 
all are but a dull halo, if halo it be,—not unlike 
that which shines from the face of an arc-angel 
ruined. [Applause.] 

Mr. President, with regard to this Wilmot 
Proviso, I can recognize no crisis that has ar¬ 
rived requiring that the democratic party, which 
has heretofore opposed all sectional divisions 
and irritations, should now step forward to main¬ 
tain it. I see no cause of controversy between 
the North and South. 1 am not aware that the 
South has injured us; and certainly I am not 
one of those who would volunteer to carry fire¬ 
brands into the South. And I trust we are not of 
those who are cursed with a pharasaic spirit— 
who are continually saying to their neighbors— 

stand thou there, lam holier than thou.” I am 
proud to think there is not a slave within this 
state.' I wish that slavery were abolished every 
where. But, sir, 1 will leave that matter where 
our lights have left it—where our constitution 
left it; nor would I do any thing to sow dissen¬ 
sions between sections of our country. This 
Wilmot Proviso is represented as a new ^corner 
stone.’ It is a new one, if it is to be adopted. 
By whom was it laid? I ask not this in a spirit 
of enmity, or with any wish whatever to assail 
those who deemed it their duty with all the 
form and solemnity they could muster, to lay it 
at Herkimer. But I ask by w’hom was it laid? 
Was it not laid at an insignificant gathering of 
politicians fl will not say of what creed or per¬ 
suasion) but was it not laid by angry politicians? 
How was our corner stone laid? On what was 
erected the noble democratic fabric? Was it 
not founded on the constitution of the country; 
laid by those who founded our constitution; laid 
in solemn deliberation by men of world-wide 
minds, of exalted intellects, of undoubted pa¬ 
triotism; by the fathers of the country and ihe 


founders of the democratic party? They laid 
the corner of the country and its people, and 
called it ‘compromise;’ and on that has been 
reared the fabric under which the states of 
this Union have lived and flourished. When 
you talk about laying a new corner stone, reflect 
whether you do not contemplate pulling down 
to its foundations this noble edifice. [Applause.] 
Mr. President, a crisis has come. Our coun¬ 
try demands our support in this war. An ad¬ 
ministration which you honor, not so much for 
the men who compose it, though we honor those 
men, as that it is the administration of the demo¬ 
cratic party. That administration invokes our 
aid, and our support. Will we not give it free¬ 
ly? There are those in, as well as out of the 
democratic party, I am sorry to say, who sneer 
at that administration. There are many things 
I could say about it, which in my position I will 
not say. But sir, defend it generally, I will.— 
Let me ask, what has that administration done to 
impair the confidence in it of any good demo¬ 
crat, who looks to the attainment through an ad¬ 
ministration of his choice, only of the advance¬ 
ment of democratic measures and principles?— 
What pledges did this administration make, 
which it has not nobly and completely fulfilJeci? 
Texas was to be annexed. That was the issue 
emblazoned on the banner under which we so 
manfully contended in the last campaign, and 
Under which we triumphed. Texas has been an¬ 
nexed. A tariff, founded on revenue principles, 
and meeting the approbation of the democracy 
every where, has been established. The finan¬ 
ces of the government have been divorced from 
the affairs of banks. An independent treasury 
has been, we trust, immovably established.— 
What then remains? What has been left un¬ 
done? Scrutinize the conduct of the administra¬ 
tion—it is not for me to do it—minutely from the 
beginning down to this hour—and you find it es¬ 
sentially democratic. What else has it done?— 
The honor of the country has been vindicated in 
a war forced on us by the wrongful acts of Mex¬ 
ico. It is not for me to discuss the subject of 
the origin of this war. We have some evidence 
as to what is considered by the people at large, 
its origin, in the last gubernatorial message.— 
Sir, it is true that this war had its origin in the 
shedding of American blood on American soil, 
by Mexican hands. There is one passage, allow 
me to say, in that gubernatorial message—and I 
need not quote it here—for no man who hears 
me has not read it with gratification, if not sur¬ 
prise—which will carry down to posterity, with 
honor, the name of John Young. [Applause.]— 
What sir, have been the results of this war? I 
speak not now of our victories. What have 
been its results? Glorious, every way glorious 
to our country—glorious to our arms—glorious 
to the noble men who have carried forward 
our conquering eagles to the very ‘ Halls of the 
Montezumas’—glorious to the administration 
which has conducted and controlled these bril¬ 
liant movements—glorious above all in this— 
that it has been conducted in a spirit of magnan¬ 
imity and forbearance unparalleled in the annals 
of civilized warfare. No unnecessary bloodshed 
—no arbitrary restrictions or interdicts—no op¬ 
pressive interference vvith the business, or trade, 
or religious observances, of the peaceable in¬ 
habitants. We have proved ourselves as merci¬ 
ful in the hour of triumph, as terrible and irre- 
sistable in battle. [Applause.] Sir, the conse¬ 
quences of that war are now being felt, not only 
in our country, but throughout the world. Two 
great consequences have flown from it. Our 
reputation as a military nation, without which 
it is impossible for a people to exist without 
being continually insulted and permanently des¬ 
pised—our reputation as a military nation is in- 



19 


controvertably established. Go where an Ame¬ 
rican will—no n)atter into what corner ol the 
globe he goes—he will find that the name of his 
country is known, and that the very name of an 
* American citizen’ throws around him a shield 
and a protection, stronger and more effectual 
than was ever the tile of a ‘Roman citizen.’— 
[Applause.] Another consequence may be 
found in this. It enables us now, because we 
have fully demonstrated the position which be¬ 
longs to us among the nations of the earth—to 
carry out the spirit of the principle asserted by 
Jackson, of asking- nothing but what is right, and 
submitting to nothing that is wrong, [renewed 
applause] without incurring the hazard of break¬ 
ing the bonds of peace which bind us to other 
nations. In a worti, we now occupy a more ad¬ 
vantageous and commanding position before the 
world—having shown the physical ability to en¬ 
force, and therefore having the moral power of 
compelling, respect for our national rights and 
for the rights and personal safety of our citizens 
everywhere. 

But the consequences of this war have in no 
wise interfered to change the pervading senti¬ 
ment of our people. We are a great but not a 
revengeful people. We are a magnanimous peo¬ 
ple. When compelled to fight, we will fight it 
out to the last. But we love peace. We pray 
for peace. And nothing would be more satis¬ 
factory to this whole nation, at this day, than to 
yield to Mexico, when she comes in a proper 
position to ask for it, an honorable, an equitable, 
a just peace. [Applause.] Now sir, where does 
this Wilmot proviso lead us? Is this a peace 
proviso? If seriously agitated and carried out, 
will it aid us in attaining peace, and healing the 
wounds of Mexico? I fear me not. I see nothing 
pacific in this proviso. Take it into our nation¬ 
al halls of legislation, and what can you effect 
with it? Southern men have feelings, and places, 
thank God! in our halls of legislation at Wash¬ 
ington. They are men. They are patriotic men. 
They are men who have their sectional feelings. 
Will they submit to what they deem an insult? 
With the representatives of fourteen slave states 
in the U. S. Senate, or any portion of them, form 
a part of the two-thirds necessary to sanction a 
treaty, embracing this proviso, which they re¬ 
gard as an insult and a wrong to the South? No, 
sir, they will sit there forever, before they will 
assent to such a treaty. And may I not add, that 
there are some Northern men, who have such a 
sense of what belongs to the true dignity of this 
nation, that they will not concede to Mexico, or 
any foreign nation whatever, the rigid, by trea¬ 
ty stipulation, to step in and say what the United 
States shall do with territory she may acquire.— 
[Applause.] Sir, this proviso is impracticable. 
It is not a peace measure. It is a war measure. 
Carry it out, and what have you done for ‘ bleed¬ 
ing, wronged Mexico,’as the whigs have it. You 
have on the part oT the United States, perpetual 
war. And this is your new corner stone!— 
[Applause.] What must the building be that 
is to spring from such a foundation, when the 
very first act is to sprinkle it with blood? [Ap¬ 
plause.] I bring here no feeling to this conven¬ 
tion, save a feeling for my party and my coun¬ 
try. I will do any thing-any thing that 1 can 
do consistently with my principles and the good 
of my party, to conciliate the democracy. I 
long, sir, to see the democratic party united, 
wholly and entirely, and moving together as 
one man, in the great contest that is coming on. 
1 regret being separated from those with whom 
I have heretofore marched in phalanx, shoulder 
to shoulder. I regret the desertion of those 
whom I have heretofore lookeil up to as leaders. 
But 1 thank God that they, not I, have demanded 
this separation. They have put up this impene¬ 


trable barrier, and their hands, and their hands 
alone can remove it. I wish they could triumph 
with us in the next election—for that triumph 
must come, whether New York be with us or 
against us. [Applause.] But triumph, I am 
frank to confess, would lose something of its 
value in my estimation, if the great democratic 
state of New York, with the ability to do it, 
should not contribute to that result. 1 am wil¬ 
ling to do much to heal our dissensions; and 
therefore let me ask—and I do it in a spirit of 
kindness—if there be any good old democrat 
present, [the hall was crowded with listeners,] 
with whom 1 have heretofore acted—but who 
is now alienated from his party—oh, let me 
ask him, ‘why will you perish?’ [Laughter 
and applause.] We adjure you to come back 
to the old fold of democracy, where w-e 
have so long wintered and summered to¬ 
gether. Oh, I admit every thing now! I vvjll 
concede that you are going forward on the full 
tide of successful experiment; That this agita¬ 
tion which your leaders have blown up, is fast 
spreading—and that you will carry every thing 
before you—in a word, that you are going to 
carry a President of this Union on the Wilmot 
proviso plan! [Laughter.] And you are 
going to have a majority of the congressional 
districts represented by Wilmot proviso men! 
But with all that, what have you effected? 
What have you done for the Wilmot proviso? 
What have you done for the democratic party? 
Have you even carried the Wilmot proviso?— 
My friend, you have not taken the initiative step 
toivards it. It is an impracticability, and you 
can’t do it. To do it is disunion—and disunion 
is impossible, thank God ! [Prolonged applause.] 
But grant that you have effected an impossibili¬ 
ty, and dissevered this free and hajipy republic. 
Then there are two confederacies—there is a 
great northern confederacy and a great southern 
confeileracy ! Oh ! if you carry out this Wilmot 
proviso, what is to become of sunjugated Mexi¬ 
co, on whose account you have done this great 
mischief; on whose account you have torn down 
the consecrated fabric which your forefathers 
erected and cemented with their blood? W here 
is subjugated Mexico? Far off in the south¬ 
west. Whom does she approach in territory? 
Does she not border on these very slaveholding 
states? Will she, can she, cross the broad line 
of slave states intervening between us and her, 
to annex herself to the free North? It seems to 
me not. Then, Wilmot proviso men ! you have 
this dread alternative; You must complete the 
sacrifice you have commenced for this abstrac¬ 
tion !—this victory ! You must war on your breth¬ 
ren of the south, to maintain the rights of Mex¬ 
ico, for whose sake you have destroyed the 
union! But grant that you have achieved this 
direst of all calamities—this catastrophe which 
the wise and good men who framed our consti¬ 
tution regarded as the greatest that could befal 
their country—what, aye, what will you have 
done for the democratic party? I grant that you 
have succeeded so far as to break down the de¬ 
mocratic party of the Empire State; that her vote 
has been given to those with whom you have 
long been politically antagonistic; that whigs 
and Wilmot proviso men are installed in power. 
Suppose you succeed in effecting a similar 
result in the approaching Presidential contest? 
What then? Where is anything and every¬ 
thing for which you have heretofore contended? 
Where is your revenue tariff? Where is your 
independent treasury? Where are all the other 
measures and doctrines of the democratic party? 
You, if you are carried further by this stiange 
and unnatural excitement, will contribute to the 
destruction of your party and principles, and I 
leave it to you to say, if that time shall come? 



20 


How will you feel when called on to clamor in 
triumph w’ith the whigs—to band, hand in hand, 
and to shout through a common throat with the 
abolition agitators? How then will you feel?— 
[Applause.] When you see a higii protective 
larili' overriding the interests of the many for 
the benelit of the few—when you see a monster 
bank re-constructed on the ruins of the old— 
how then will you feel? When you see the lib¬ 
erties of the country jirostrate and bleeding by 
your parricidal hand, tell me not that you will 
not regret deeply the part j'ou have taken in this 
controversy. 

Mr. President—or rather Mr. Wilmot Proviso 
man—for I have not yet done with you—I speak 
in kindness but in all sincerity and firmness— 

ou have chosen your new higij-priests—you 

ave laid your corner stone, and you are now 
erecting your frail edifice of worship, and in¬ 
vite me to worship with you. I have scanned 
the foundation of that temple. I have entered 
its portals, and have looked at the false idol you 
have erected there. Beautiful! beautiful is that 
idol! But there is too much bloodly ievolution 
in its eye. [Prolonged applause.] She requires 
too many and costly sacrifices at her bloody 
shrine. I abjure it. It is a false god. Oh, come 
rather with me. Come back to the good old de¬ 
mocratic temple, erected on the corner stone of 
the constitution of the country. Enter into com¬ 
munion with the democracy there, as of old; and 
there, aye, there invoke a blessing on your coun- 
try, your whole country, your expanded and ex¬ 
panding country, from the true God of benevo¬ 
lence and love. 

[Mr. Clinton resumed his seat under an out¬ 
burst of applause which shook the hall, and 
which was prolonged for some minutes.] 

Mr. Cltmton having concluded, the reso¬ 
lutions were adopted unanimously. 

Mr. Corning, from the committee on or¬ 
ganization, submitted the following resolutions, 
whieh were also adopted:— 

Resolved, That this convention cordially re¬ 
spond to the recommendation adopted by the late 
democratic State Convention held at Syracuse, 
that the democratic electors of each Congress¬ 
ional district select therein a delegate to the 
Democratic National Convention, for the nomi¬ 
nation of President and Vice President. And be 
it further 

Resolved, That for the purpose of carrying out 
more fully the recommendation of the Lyracuse 
Convention, a committee consisting of one for 
each Assembly district, or ward, be appointed by 
this convention, in each congressional district, 
whose duty it shall be to designate the time and 
place for holding the convention in each congres¬ 
sional district for the appointment of a delegate 
to the National Convention—and that said com 
mittees in their discretion, call the local conven¬ 
tions or caucuses for the choice of delegates to 
the respective Congressional district conven¬ 
tions. 

Resolved, That the delegates to the National 
Convention who shall be chosen under and in 
furtherance of the foregoing resolutions, shall 
meet at a time and place to be designated by the 
State Committee, for the purpose of electing 
State deleffates, and to fill any vacancies that may 
from any cause exist, in the representation of 
the Congressional distriets. 

Mr. Corning also reported for the consid¬ 
eration of the convention, a resolution declar¬ 
ing it expedient for this convention to nominate 
a ticket of electors. 


Mr. Lewis, of Yates, moved the adoption 
of the resolution. 

Mr. Hughes, of New York, called for 
the ayes and noes on the resolution. 

Mr. J. C. Wright, of Schenectady, sug¬ 
gested, that if there was any difference of 
opinion on this question—it being a new one, 
probably, to some of the delegates—that it 
would be well to take a short recess, to allow 
gentlemen an opportunity to confer together, 
believing, that upon a free interchange of 
views, there would be no difference of opinion. 

Mr. Seymour, of Rensselaer, did not un¬ 
derstand that the gentleman who called for the 
ayes a 'd noes, was opposed to the resolution, 
or that there was any opposition to it in any 
quarter. 

Mr. Judd, of Herkimer, suggested that hav¬ 
ing agreed to organize the districts with a 
view to a representation in the Natirnal Con¬ 
vention, and having thus virtually agreed to 
abide by the nomination of that convention, no 
one could object to going lurther and perfect¬ 
ing the necessary arrangements for giving full 
effect to that action, by nominating electors 
pledged to sustain the national nominees. 

Mr. Wright said he made the suggestion 
under the supposition that there might be op¬ 
position to the resolution. For himself, he had 
no doubt about the expediency of nominating 
an electoral ticket. 

Mr. McMurray of New York, suggested 
that if the resolution were referred back, and 
a recess taken, the resolution, with a slight 
modification, could be put in a shape which 
would secure for it the unanimous concurrence 
of the convention. He therefore moved a re¬ 
cess of an hour, and a re-commitment. 

Mr. Griffin of New York spoke briefly 
to the question. 

Mr. Shepard sustained Mr. McMurray *s 
proposition—and 

The convention took a recess of one hour. 

On the re-assembling of the convention, 

Mr. Corning, from the committee on or¬ 
ganization, reported that the committee had 
corae to the conclusion unanimously to recom¬ 
mend the adoption of the following resolution: 

Resolved, That it is expedient that this Con¬ 
vention nominate Electors of President and 
Vice-President; subject to the right of any con¬ 
gressional district to designate a different candi- 
date for elector for said district at the democra¬ 
tic congressional district convention to be called 
by the congressional district committee appoint¬ 
ed by this convention, for the appointment of 
delegates to the democratic National Conven¬ 
tion; and that such electors be and are hereby 
instructed to vote for the nominees of the Demo¬ 
cratic National Convention, 




21 


This resolution was received with applause, 
and unanimously adopted. 

Mr. Corning also reported the following 
resolution, which was adopted:— 

Resolved, That the State Committeee be and 
are hereby authorized to fill any and all vacan¬ 
cies that may occur in the electoral ticket. 

On motion of Mr. Shepard, the conven¬ 
tion took a recess until 4 p. m. 

4 o'clock P. M. 

Mr. Clinton moved the appointment by 
the chair, of a committee of eight, (one from 
each judicial district^ to report the names ol 
two Presidential Electors for the state at large. 
Agreed to, and the President named the 
committee as follows:— 

Messrs. Clinton, of Erie; McMurray, of 
New York; IIasbrouck, of Kings; Monell, of 
Columbia; Seymour, of Rensselaer; Comstock, 
of Oneida: Bennett, of Onondaga, and Smith, 
of Chenango. 

Mr. Follett, of Genesee, offered the fol¬ 
lowing: 

Resolved, That this convention approve of the 
positions assumed in the resolutions offered by 
the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson in the U. S. Sen¬ 
ate, as recognizing the true principle of free 
government, amt as harmonizing with the letter 
and spirit of our federal constitution. 

Mr. Parburt cf Ontario offered the fol¬ 
lowing as an addition thereto: 

And that his able and unanswerable argument 
in the U. S. Senate on the 12th inst., in support 
of said resolutions, has honorably won for him 
the proud and patriotic appellation of “ the bold 
and eloquent exponent of a Nation’s will.” 

The amendment was accepted by Mr. Fol¬ 
lett, and the amended resolution was unani¬ 
mously adopted. 

Mr. Follett offered the following, which 
was also adopted: 

Resolveil, That the thanks of this Convention 
be and they are hereby tendered to the Hon. the 
Assembly for the use of the Assembly Chamber 
on the 2(>tli inst. 

Mr. NiCHOL%offered the following, which 
was also adopted: 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention 
be and they are hereby tendered to the Common 
Council of this city, for the use of this room, for 
the sitting of the Convention. 

Mr. Craft moved that the proceedings of 
this convention be published in all the demo¬ 
cratic papers of the state, in the Washington 
Union, and in pamjihlet form. 

Mr. McWhorter of Oswego, suggested 
that jirovision should be made for the publica- 
lion of a large number in pamphlet form. He 
tliought 10,000 copies not too many. 

Mr. Sibley, of Monroe, subsequently mov¬ 
ed the printing of 20,000 copies in pamphlet 
—and that a committee of eight, one from each 
judicial district, be appointed to raise a fund to 
defray the exjiense, and to superintend the pub- 
Kcation and distribution of them. 


The motion was agreed to, and 

The President named the committee as 
follows:— 

Messrs. Sibley of Monroe, McVean of New 
York, Hyatt of Westchester, Verplanck of 
Albany, Wright of Schenectady, Judd of Her¬ 
kimer, Smith of Chenango, and Follett of 
Genesee. 

Mr. Clinton, from the committee hereto¬ 
fore appointed, reported the names of Presi¬ 
dential Electors for the state at large, 
as follows:— 


CAMPBELL P. WHITE, of New York; 

HEMAN J. REDFIELD, of Genesee. 

The report was received with applause, and 
unanimously adopted. 

On motion of Mr. Parburt, the districts 
were called, and the names of electors were 


proposed by delegates, for each, under the re¬ 
solution heretofore adojited, as follows:— 

1st District—HUGH HALSEY, of Suffolk. 

2nd do JOHN A. LOTT ofKings. 

3rd do FRAXCI'^ R CUTTING, of New York. 
4lh do ALEXANDER F VACHE, do 

6th do TOWNSEND HARRIS, do 

6th do CHARLES O’rONOR, do 

7lh do BENJ HRANDP.ETH, of Westchester. 
8th do HAMEL o. AIKEN, of Dutchess. 

9lh do ALEXANDER iHOMPSON, or Orange. 
10th do PHILIP DUBOIS, of Ulster. 

11th do OLIVER WISW ALL, of Columbia, 

12th do HENRY VAIL, of Rensselaer. 

13th do PETER WENDELL, of Albany. 

J4th do TIMOTHY EDDY, of Washington. 

)5th do I-iAAC W Pi. BROMLEY, of Ciinton. 

16lh do WILLIAM L. F. WARREN, of Saratoga. 

17th do THOS. B MITCHELL, of Montgomery. 

ISth do ALBURN FO'.TER, of Lewis. 

19th do JOSEPH GRAVES, of Jefferson. 

2 )th do JOHN D LELAND, of Oneida. 

21st do LYM'-N SANFORD, of Schoharie. 

22nd do STEPHEN STRONG, of Tioga 
23rd do t^AMUEL FRENCH, of Madison. 

24th do MILES W. BENNETT, of Onovidaga. 
26lh do JOHN THOMPSON, of Cayuga. 

26th da EBENEZER MACK, of Tompkins. 

27th do THOMAS ARMSTRONG, of Wayne. 

28th do HORACE GAY, of Monroe. 

29th do LUCIUS WARNER of Ontario. 

30fh do HIRAM POTTER, of Steuben. 

31st do EBENEZER A LESTER,ofChautauque. 
32nd do CUSHING SWIFT, of Erie. 

33rd do RUFU> H. SMITH, of Wyoming. 

34th do NATHAN DAYTON, of Niagara. 

The names having been read, were, with the 
two state electors, unanimously agreed to, as 
the Democratic State Electoral Ticket. 


Mr. Corning offered the following, which 
was adopted: 

Resolved, That a commitlee of three be ap¬ 
pointed by the Chair, to inform the several Elec¬ 
tors of their nomination by this convention, and 
of the fact that they are instructed to vote for 
the nominees of the Democratic National Con¬ 
vention, and to request a response from each of 
them. 

The Presidf.nt named Messrs. Corning 


of Albany, Monell of Columbia, and Pom¬ 
eroy of Cayuga, as the committee. 

Mr. Corning reported from the committee 
on organization the following, and it was adop¬ 
ted : 

Resolved, That in all cases where county or 
district committees refuse to recognize the re¬ 
gular and legitimate organization, emanating 


V 





22 


from a regularly called and delegated state con¬ 
vention, by declining or neglecting to call county 
or district conventions when recommended by 
an authorized committee of said state conven¬ 
tion, it is the province of the democratic elec¬ 
tors of said county or district to assemble in 
pursuance of the recommendation of said state 
committee, to carry out the objects recommend¬ 
ed. 

Mr. Corning now reported a list of con¬ 
gressional district committees, as prepared by 
the committee on organization, which was 
agreed to, as follows:— 

First Congressional District. 

Suffolk—He.nry Landon, Joshua B. Smith. 

Queens —Elbert F. Jones. 

Second District. 

Richraond—'Remy Cole. 

Kings— C. Boswell, Williamsburgh; Wil¬ 
liam Marshall, William M. Harris, Brooklyn. 

Third District, New York. 

First Ward —E. R. Carpentier. 

Second Ward —D. R. Floyd Jones. 

Third Ward —James Donley. 

Fourth Ward —Florence M’Carty. 

Fifth Ward —Emanuel B. Hart. 

Fourth District, New York. 

Sixth Ward —Matthew Murray. 

Seventh H’orrf—Edmund S. Driggs. 

Tenth Ward —Richard J. Smith. 

Thirteenth Ward —Wm. W. Fream. 

Fifth District, Neio York. 

Eighth Ward—ioho B. Haskins. 

Ninth Ward —James L. Miller. 

Fourteenth Ward —James Callaghan. 

Sixth District, New York. 

Eleventh Ward —Thomas W. Brennan. 

Twelfth Ward —Garrett H. Stryker, jr. 

Fifteenth Ward —John J. Parsels. 

Sixteenth Ward —Stephen V. Conkwright. 

Seventeenth Ward —George Montgomery. 

Eighteenth Ward —William G. Wood. 

Seventh District. 

Westchester —John F. Yoe, Manuel Noah. 

Rockland—Ahi'dim B. Conger. 

Eighth District. 

Putnam —Ebenezer Foster. 

Dutchess —J. M. Ketchum, Ulysses Cole, Wm. 
B. Platt. 

Nint District. 

Orange —Charles Borland, Wm. Murray, jr., 
Alsop V. Asbell. 

Sulivan —Archibald C. Niven. 

Tenth District. 

Ulstei —Sol. S. Hommell, Daniel "Wurts. 

Delaware — J. B. Howe, Marlin Keeler, jr. 

Eleventh District. 

Columbia —Alexander S. Rowley, Peter Groat. 

Greene —John Adams, Lyman Tremain. 

Twelfth District. 

Rensselaer —John B. Townsend, J, M. Mott, 
Martin Springer. 

Thirteenth District. 

Albany—John Niles, Rufus W. Peckham, B. P. 
Staats, David Hamilton. 

Fourteenth District. 

Washington —E. D. Baker, Alexander P. Rob 
inson. 

Essex—C. A. Trimble. 

Fifteenth District, 

Warren —Cyrus Burnham. 

Franklin —J. R. Flanders. 

Clinton —William Hedding. 


Sixteenth District. 

Saratoga—E. F. Bullard, John A. Corey. 
Schenectady —George McQueen. 

Fulton—Wic^h Thompson. 

Seventeenth District. 

Herkimer —J. M. Lyon, Lambert Sternberg. 
Montgomery — George D. Ferguson, Morgan L. 
Harris. 

Eighteenth District. 

St. Lawrence —Pliilander Robbins. 

Lewis —Francis Seger. 

Nineteenth District. 

Jeferson —A. P. Burlingame, William Carlyle, 
J. C. Dann. 

Twentieth District. 

Oneida —Horatio Seymour, Delos DeWolf, Jes¬ 
se Armstrong, Squire Utley. 

Twenty-first District. 

Otsego—Charles C. Noble, Schuyler Crippen, 
Sumner Ely. 

Schoharie —David Deitz, John Westover. 

Twenty-second District. 

Chenango—WilWsim Cook, Charles B. Miller. 
Broome—John R. Dickinson. 

Tioga —Erastus Evans. 

Twenty-third District. 

Madison —Z. T. Bentley, Sylvanus Henrv. 
Oswego —Alvin Lawrence, Ransom H. Tyler. 
Twenty-fourth District. 

Onondaga —James Lynch, Hicks Worden, Ca¬ 
leb N. Potter, William Porter, jr. 

Twenty-fifth District. 

Cayuga —Charles VV. Pomery, David Gould, 
Dennis Robinson. 

Cortland —Orrin Reynolds. 

Ticenty-sixth District. 

Tompkins —Daniel Jackson, Cyrus Beers. 
Chemung —Lyman Covill. 

Yates —Darius A. Ogden. 

Twenty-seventh District. 

Seneca —Charles A. Gibbs. 

Wayiie —George W. Cuyler, Eron N. Thomas. 
Twenty-eighth District. 

Monroe —J. B. Crosby, Erastus Ide, ls.aiic Jos- 
lin. 

Twenty-ninth District. 

Ontario —George M. Horton, Asa R. Butler. 
Livingston—E. Faulkner, Henry Chamberlain, 
Thirtieth District. 

Steuben —John D. Higgins, John M’Burney, 
Robert L. Brundage. 

Allegany —C. T. Chamberlai^. 

Thirty-first District. 

Cattaraugus—Tho\na.s J. Wheeler, David Day. 
Chautauque —W. W. Hawkins, Benjamin Wal¬ 
worth. 

Thirty-second District. 

Erie—Ashev P. Nichols, J. Goold Mather, 
Joseph Foster, Moses M’Arthur. 

Thirty-third District. 

Wyoming—Joels. Smith. 

Genesee —William G. Bryan, Perrin M. Smith. 

Thirty-fourth District. 

Orleans —L. A. G. B. Grant. 

A^iagara—Augustus A. Boyce, A. V. E. Hotch¬ 
kiss. 

Mr. Wright of Schenectady, off3red a 
resolution of thanks to the presiding' and other 
officers of the convention, and himself put the 
question, and it was unanimously adopted. 

Mr. Rob of Fulton, moved that the conven¬ 
tion now adjourn. 





23 


Mr. Judd of Herkimer, before that motion 
was put, moved three cheers for " our corner 
stone”—the constitution—and three cheers for 
our army in Mexico—which were e;iven witli 
a will. 

The President addressed a few parting 
words to the convention, and put the question 
on adjourning, when 

The convention adjourned, sine die. 

HIRAM DENIO, President. 
WILLUM McMURRAY, 

JOSEPH O. HA'BROUCK, 

JOSEPH D. MON ELL, 

SAMUEL CHEEVER, 

DORASTUS LAWRENCE, 

MATHIAS VAN HOESEN, 

WILLIAM H. NOBLE, 

MARCUS H. JOHNSON, Vice Presidents. 
HIRAM A. BEEBE, 

SAMUEL REYNOLDS, 

ANDREW CLARK, 

ISAAC MUNSON, Secretaries. 

TilE DEJIOIRITIC PARTY, 

ITS USAGES, PRINCIPLES AND RIGHTS. 

Efforts having been made of late to torture 
the history of the usage and practice of the 
Democratic Party in this state, to the purposes 
of bolting and disorganization, it is proper to 
recur to it, and to slate the facts, so that all 
may understand their true import. 

Prior to the adoption of the amended consti¬ 
tution in 1821, the nominations of candidates 
for governor and lieut. governor were made by 
a legislative caucus. So also, the presidential 
electors being chosen by the legislature, were 
nominated either by a caucus, or appointed di¬ 
rectly without an intermediate nomination. — 
There was then a reason for the state nomina¬ 
tions by the legislative caucus, which ceased 
to have force after the adoption of the constitu¬ 
tion of 1821: The annual election being in 
April, the nominations of candidates by a leg 
islative caucus, a few months or weeks prioi 
to the election, was the most convenient and at 
that time attainable mode. The last legisla¬ 
tive caucus nomination of a governor and lieut. 
govej iioi , was at the second gubernatorial elec¬ 
tion under the new constitution, and it was held 
on the 13lh of April, 1824. At that caucus. 
Col. Young was nominated over the then Gov. 
Yates; the inducing causes for which were the 
fact that Col. Y. was plotting with the “peo 
pie’s party,” a third faction, who had split off 
from the democratic party, under their “chief 
stone of the corner,” the electoral law and their 
candidate, Mr. Clay, and it was believed that 
tlie best way to quiet fiction or bolting, was to 
minister to it and seize upon their candidate. 
The defeat of Col. Young by nearly 17,000 


votes, was the natural climax of any such aban 
donment of tried and true friends, to conciliate 
demagogueism and disorganization. 

The first democratic state convention was 
held on the 1st of October, 1826, at Herki¬ 
mer. The democratic members of the legis¬ 
lature in April, o/ the same year,issued an ad¬ 
dress recommending a change of mode and 
recommending also that a convention be held 
as above. At that time, Wm. B. Rochester 
was nominated for governor, and Nathaniel 
Pitcher for lieut. governor. Judge Rochester 
was defeated, and Gen. Pitcher elected. 

From this period, down to the adoption of 
the present constitution, in 1846, the demo¬ 
cratic members of the legislature every two 
years recommended a slate convention, within 
the same year, for the nomination of candi¬ 
dates for governor and lieut. governor. 

Thus in 1828, a caucus held on the 15lh of 
April, recommended a state convention at 
Herkimer on the 24th Sept., of the same 
year, at which Martin Van Buren was nomi¬ 
nated for governor, and Enos T. Throop for 
lieut. governor. At this second state conven¬ 
tion, “a corresponding committee,” of one 
from each senate district, was appointed, but 
no other powe. was conferred upon them. At 
(his convention, Gen. Jackson was nominated 
for president. 

In 1830, on the I3th of April, a legislative 
caucus recommende 1 that a state convention 
be held on the 8(h of “^ept. in the same year, 
at which Enos T. Throop was nominated for 
governor, and Edward 1 . Livingston for lieut. 
governor. 

In 1832, the caucus was held on the 19fh 
of April, and a state convention for the nomi¬ 
nation of candidates for governor and lieut. 
governor, and presidential electors, recom¬ 
mended to be held at Herkimer on the 19th 
September, in the same year. That con¬ 
vention nominated Wm. L. Marcy for govern¬ 
or and John Tracy for lieut. governor, and a 
ticket foi presidential electors. In this year, 
Mr. Van Buren was the candidate for vice- 
president, and the nominees for electors were 
required to pledge themselves to vote for An¬ 
drew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. A 
“state corresponding committee,” consisting of 
two from each senate district, was appointed, 
but no specific power was conferred upon them. 

In 1834, a legislative caucus was held on 
the 30th of April, and a state convention rec¬ 
ommended at Herkimer, on the 10th of Sep¬ 
tember, of the same year. Wm. L. Marcy 
and John Tracy were nominated for governor 








24 


and lieut. governor. No corresponding com¬ 
mittee was appointed. 

In 1836, on the 24th of May, a caucus was 
held, which recommended a state convention 
for the nomination of candidates for governor 
and lieut. governor, and for presidential elec¬ 
tors, to be held at Syracuse, on the 24th of 
September, of the same year. The electors 
placed in nomination were instructed to vote 
for Martin Van Buren for president. No cor¬ 
responding committee was appointed. 

In 1838, the caucus was held on the 21st 
April, and a state convention recommended to 
be held at Herkimer, on the 12th of Sept, m 
the same year. Gov. Marcy and Lt. Gov. 
Tracy were nominated. 

In 1840, the state convention of April 9, 
for the appointment of national delegates, called 
the state convention on the 2nd of September, 
of the same year, and Wm. C. Bouck was 
nominated for governor and D. S. Dickinson 
for Lieut. Governor. 

In 1842, the caucus was held on the 25th 
of April, and the state convention on the 7th 
of Sept, in the same year. Wm.C. Bouck 
and D. S. Dickinson were again nominated for 
governor and lieut. governor. 

In 1844, the caucus was on the 6th of 
May, and the state convention on the 4th of 
September, in the same year. Silas Wright 
and Addison Gardiner were nominated for gov¬ 
ernor and lieutenant governor. Electors for 
president and vice-president were nominated, 
each congressional district, on motion of Mr. 
Russell, of St. Lawrence, presenting its candi¬ 
date for elector. 

In 1846, the caucus was held on the 12lh 
of May, and the state convention on the first of 
October, of the same year. Gov. Wright 
and Lieut. Gov. Gardiner were again nomina¬ 
ted. 

In 1847, the caucus w^as held on the lllh 
of May, and recommended a state convention 
at Syracuse on the 29th of Sept, in the same 
year, “ for the purpose of nominating state 
officers, and transacting such other busi¬ 
ness as shall come before the convention.^’ 
The history and results of this convention are 
known to the democracy of the state and the 
Union. It nominated, by a clear and fair ma¬ 
jority, an unexceptionable ticket for state offi¬ 
cers; it recommended the district mode of 
appointing delegates to the national conven¬ 
tion, and it appointed a state central commit¬ 
tee, to call future state conventions. A fac¬ 
tious minority, after having insisted that the 
“ Wilmol Proviso’’ should be adopted by the 


convention, as the shibboleth of the democratic 
faith, and that issue being refused by the ma¬ 
jority, the “ proviso” partizans assembled at 
Herkimer, denounced the democratic state 
ticket, under the leadership of John Van Bu¬ 
ren, a rejected delegate at Syracuse, and uni¬ 
ting with the whigs upon the “ corner-stone” 
issue, defeated the democratic ticket, and placed 
the state in the hands of the whigs. 

From 1824, when the last congressional 
caucus was held, down to 1832, no general 
mode of designating the national candidates 
was acted upon. This was the less necessary, 
the sentiment of the democracy of the nation 
having clearly indicated Gen. Jackson for the 
presidential office. In 1832, the friends of 
Mr. Van Buren, desirous to vindicate him from 
the intended stigma of a rejection by the U. 
S. Senate as Minister to England, proposed a 
national convention to be held at Baltimore on 
the 3d Monday in May of that year. The 
proposition, started by tlie legislature of New 
Hampshire, was concurred in by the republi¬ 
can members of the legislature of this state. 
The caucus was held on the 3rd of Feb., and 
a state convention for the choice of delegates 
to the national convention, recommended to be 
held at the capitol in Albany, on the 21st of 
March of the same year. The state con¬ 
vention was held, a proposition to choose by 
the democrats of the districts overruled, another 
to appoint the committee tor selecting the na¬ 
tional delegates by the delegates of each dis¬ 
trict also overruled, and the national delegates 
appointed. 

At the next presidential election, the na¬ 
tional convention w^as held a year in advance 
of the election. It was called for the 20th 
May, 1835. The democratic members of the 
legislature held a caucus on the 16th of Feb., 
recommended a state convention to be held at 
Albany, on the 9ih of April of the same 
year, at which delegates to the National Con¬ 
vention were appointed. 

In 1840, a legislative caucus, held on the 
26th Feb., recommended a state convention 
on the 9(h of April of the same year, to ap¬ 
point delegates to the national convention.— 
The convention met at the time designated, and 
appointed delegates; but so far departed from 
the rule of the previous convention, as to ap¬ 
point such as were presented by the delegates 
from each district. 

In 1843, the caucus held on the 17th of 
April, recommended a state convention on the 
2nd Tuesday of Sept, o/ the same year, with 
authority to choose delegates to the national 




25 


convention, or to determine the manner in 
which they should be chosen. The state con¬ 
vention was held in Sept, and the delegates to 
the national convention appointed. Gov. Mar- 
cy was chosen president of the convention by 
a large majority over Col. Young, who was 
the candidate of the “ peculiar” democracy, 
which has since taken ground for “ provisos” 
and “secret circulars,” and equally open 
ground against the regularly nominated state 
ticket. 

It will be observed, that in each of these 
conventions, from 1832 to 1843 inclusive, the 
state of New-York presented its candi¬ 
date in the person of Mr. Van Bxiren .— 
It was regarded as material that the state 
should present an undivided vote for its own 
candidate. This feeling was naturally more 
potent than the desire to give to the people of 
each district, their right to a direct representa¬ 
tive in the national convention. It was con¬ 
ceded also that as the democrats of the state 
would as a body go for their own state can¬ 
didate, the general preference of the democ¬ 
racy of the state would be consulted in a 
choice of delegates by a state convention, al¬ 
though the same persons might not be selected 
in a choice by districts. These considerations 
overruled all others; and in the four conven¬ 
tions, in which the selection of delegates to 
Baltimore were all made with a direct refer¬ 
ence to Mr. Van Buren, the choice was made 
by the state convention, of delegates either re¬ 
quired to be pledged or supposed to be com¬ 
mitted in his favor. 

Now the question presents itself in anew and 
entirely different shape. We have no state 
candidate, and there is no reason of that sort 
for refusing to the democrats of the several 
districts their clear right to be represented in 
the National Convention. Undoubtedly popu¬ 
lar and democratic in itself, it is neither just 
nor democratic to refuse to acknowledge and 
act upon it, unless some paramount reason can 
be assigned for such refusal. None certainly 
exists now. There are several democratic 
candidates in the field for nomination, all of 
them of high prominence, and each of them 
having friends in every district of the slate. 
In some districts the friends of one candidate 
predominate, and in other districts the friends 
of another. As a matter of justice to the pre¬ 
ferences of each district, it should be allowed 
to carry them through its own chosen dele¬ 
gate, in such manner as it may deem most in 
accordance with the wishes of the democracy 
of the district. Besides, if an undivided vote 


were to be regarded as a consideration para¬ 
mount to all others, and above and beyond the 
rights of the people of the district, no man can 
suppose it attainable except in one way: and 
that way the most repugnant to all just demo¬ 
cratic equality and fair representation—/Aro agh 
a packed delegation, selected by a few 
managers in a state convention. In this 
manner, a few industrious and assuming per¬ 
sons, having objects to attain or revenges to 
gratify, might select a delegation to the Na¬ 
tional Convention, but with no regard to, 
rather with the utter disregard of, the wishes 
and preferences of the democracy of the state 
at large or ot the different districts. 

So viewing this important question, the de¬ 
mocratic state convention which assembled at 
Syracuse in September last, passed a resolu¬ 
tion recommending the choice in each con¬ 
gressional district, of a delegate to the Nation¬ 
al Convention, at such time and place as the 
democratic electors of such district should di¬ 
rect: the delegates so chosen to assemble at 
such place as the state committee should de¬ 
signate, and appoint the two state delegates. 

The same state convention appointed a state 
central committee, and conferred upon it ex- 
[)ressly the power “ to call future state con¬ 
ventions.” 

The passage of these resolutions, and the 
right to pass them, cannot be controverted. 
They were clearly within the scope of the pow¬ 
ers of the convention, and they were passed by 
a decisive majority of the delegates present, 
58 to 31 or 2. The idea that delegates can 
remain in their seats and refuse to vote, for the 
purpose of preventing the presence of a quo¬ 
rum, on the plea of not being present, will 
avail all such partizans nothing at all, and will 
be, as it has been, altogether disregarded. 

It will be observed, that since the adoption 
of the caucus mode of calling state conven¬ 
tions, no legislative caucus has ventured to ex¬ 
tend its sphere of operations beyond the year 
of its official existence. Thus, every recom¬ 
mendation of a state convention by the demo¬ 
cratic members of the legislature, has been 
within the legislative year. No definite 
power or body having been designated by pre¬ 
vious state conventions to call future conven¬ 
tions, that duty, in the form of a recommenda¬ 
tion, devolved upon the democratic members 
of the legislature; but those elected for one 
year, have never ventured to call those for the 
next, or for a subsequent year. 

If the principle be admissable for the 
next year, it may be for any future year; 



26 


and a few designing’ persons, who may secure 
a greater number of a legislature,—a number 
ready to assume power, and perform subser¬ 
vient service—might arrange conventions and 
the action of the democratic party of the state 
for any future time. They have precisely as 
much power for all time as for the next year ; 
and they have no more right to usurp the pro¬ 
vince of the legislative caucus of the next year, 
so far as that caucus would be empowered to 
act at all, than to act for the second or third or 
any future year thereafter. 

But a minority of the democratic members 
of the late legislature, were quite of another 
qiinion. The democratic state convention, 
chosen one year after the election of the mem¬ 
bers of the legislature, and representing nearly 
all the counties in the state, declared a prefer¬ 
ence for the district mode of selecting dele¬ 
gates to the national convention, and recom¬ 
mended that the democracy assemble in their 
respective districts and appoint such delegates. 
They also appointed a state central committee, 
** to call future state conventions.’’ A mi¬ 
nority of the legislature, however, greedy of 
pow'er, and forward to exercise it beyond the 
period of their existence, disregarding the 
recommendation of the delegated state conven¬ 
tion, called a state convention to be held at 
Utica on the 16f^ of February, 1848, to 
choose delegates to the national convention, or 
to determine the manner in wdiich tliey shall 
be chosen. The design of this minority pro 
ceeding was to counteract the recommendation 
of the Syracuse state convention, and to resist 
its proceedings, as the same partisans had re¬ 
sisted and op[)Osed its ticket. It w as a factious 
movement, designed to perpetuate division in 
the democratic ranks, and to present antagonist 
sets of delegates to the national convention.— 
It W'as more than that. These partizans, with 
Preston King, Geo. Rathbun and John Van 
Buren at their head, having violated all party 
faith and usage, by repudiating and denouncing 
the democratic state ticket, and by contribu¬ 
ting to the triumph of the w'higs in carrying the 
entire political branch of the state government, 
assembled in disregard of all usage at Herki¬ 
mer, and called a stale convention at that 
place, on the 22d Feb., to appoint delegates 
to the national convention. Conscious of the 
utter spuriousness of their proceeding, anxious 
to escape from it, and yet resolved to strike at 
{he regularity of the Syracuse convention, they 
prevailed upon this minority of the democra¬ 
tic members of the legislature of 1847, most 
of them the partizans of the Herki¬ 


mer disorganization, and coOperafors with 
the whigs by refusing to vote the reg¬ 
ular democratic state ticket, to call a 
slate convention in the next A'car, for the 
same purpose, emanating from the same source, 
and actuated by the same design, and only dif¬ 
fering from it in the day and place. To this 
end, or ratlier to all these schemes of faction, 
this minority did not hesitate to contribute ; 
and the Herkimer Bolters, the enemies of the 
democratic cause and ticket, the partizans w'ho 
insisted upon an open bolt from the state ticket, 
because the Syracuse convention refused to 
recognize the Wilmot Proviso as a party test, 
and who on that issue, as their “ chief stone of 
the corner” defeated the democratic tickets, 
assemble at Utica, on the IGih of Feb., under 
the spurious and unauthorised call of a minori¬ 
ty of the democratic merribers of a legislature 
who have gone out of official existence. 

These partizans exhibit this anomolous sort 
of consistency: They defy all usage and regu¬ 
larity in a mass meeting at Herkimer, and re¬ 
new their defiance and disregard of all legisla¬ 
tive caucuses and precedents, by calling, thro’ 
this irregular and non descript assemblage of 
bolters from a regular state convention, a state 
convention at that somewhat notorious locality, 
for the appointment of delegates to some nation¬ 
al convention. From this position, (awkw’ard 
and uncomfortable they found it,) they became 
suddenly enamoured of a legislative caucus, 
and prodigious stickler.? for “ regular nomina¬ 
tions’’ and the “ ancient usages of the demo¬ 
cratic party !” So much so, that fresh from 
the most shameless violation of democratic 
usages and democratic faith, these bolting 
partizans employ three of the vapid columns of 
the Atlas to show that the moment they leaped 
from the Herkimer “corner stone,” and fell 
back upon a minority legislative caucus, they 
had established their exclusive regularity for 
the last quarter of a century. 

Of the right of a state convention, composed 
of delegates from nearly all the counties of 
the state, and representing the voice of the 
great democratic majority, to change the mode 
of appointing delegates to the National Con¬ 
vention, and to appoint a committee, from 
different sections of the state, to call future 
state conventions, rather than leave that duty 
in the hands of members of the legislature, and 
especially in the hands of a minority of the 
democratic members, no one, justly regarding 
the rightful source of political power, the 
People, will deny. In the present instance, 
the minority which assumed to act and call 



27 


a state convention at Utica, in derogation of 
the decisions of a duly constituted and full 
convention of the democracy of the state, re¬ 
presented in the popular branch only fifteen 
of the 58 counties, and these few representa¬ 
tives were elected a year before the choice of 
delegates to the Syracuse State Convention. 

The idea that the assembled democracy in 
delegated state convention, is not higher autho¬ 
rity than a minority and a small number of mem¬ 
bers of the legislature, and that they have .not the 
clear right to change a mode of nomination or 
the appointment of delegates, or the mode of 
calling state conventions, may be federalism 
and may be “ corner stone ” and Wilmot pro¬ 
viso democracy—that democracy which, dis¬ 
regarding all usage and democratic authority, 
assailed and defeated the regular democratic 
ticket and aided and voted for the whig ticket 
—but it is not that genuine and true democra¬ 
cy, which seeks to ascertain the will and carry 
out the wishes of the democratic masses, and 
which seeks also to bring the choice of dele¬ 
gates, as it has d me members of the legislature 
in our popular elections, directly to the people. 
As well may it be contended, that in the progress 
of democratic sentiment, a legislative caucus 
ought to persist in nominating a governor and 
Ueut. governor ; that the legislature should 
never have relinquished the power to appoint 
presidential electors ; and that a congressional 
caucus should continue to designate the candi¬ 
dates for president and vice president. 

These are reforms which the progressive 
spirit of the democracy has demanded and 
consummated, from time to time. The then 
new constitution of 1821 led to the change of 
the mode of nominating a governor and lieut. 
governor; and the present new constitution 
demands a change in the mode of selecting de¬ 
legates to the National Convention. The new 
instrument having adopted the district mode 
of election in all its forms, and for all the de¬ 
partments of legislation, it is obviously in ac¬ 
cordance with the popular will; and the first 
annual state convention, in which the demo¬ 
cracy of the state were fully rejiresented, af¬ 
forded a proper occasion to introduce the re¬ 
form into our local party organization. The 
power of a convention, emanating directly 
from the democratic party of the state, and 
standing in this respect and in every respect, 
above a legislative caucus of any sort, and es¬ 
pecially a caucus minority of the democratic 
members, \Niil not be denied by fair-minded 
men and honest democrats, and the Utica 
movement, originating with the Herkimer bolt¬ 


ers, and intended to arrest and counteract the 
proceedings and recommendations of the regular 
democratic state convention, is a factious pro¬ 
ceeding, entitled to no consideration, and will 
be treated as such by the great body of the 
democracy. 

The present Democratic State Committee was 
appointed by the same convention which nom¬ 
inated the democratic state ticket. Although 
combinations and traitorous designs were form¬ 
ed by factious politicians, under the Wilmot 
proviso flag, to oppo.se and defeat the ticket, it 
was everywhere regarded as the regular demo¬ 
cratic ticket. Even the prints of the Atlas 
and “ proviso” school, with three exceptions, 
(the St. Lawrence bolting organ, Senator Les* 
ter’s Ontario organ, and another less conspicu¬ 
ous,) displayed it at the head of their editorial 
column, as the regular democratic ticket. 
The state committee was not less regular in 
its organization and appointment. Every 
member of it, including Mr. Paige, whose 
associations and affinities with the Atlas parti- 
zans, as a family connexion of Mr. Van Bu- 
ren, are w#»B known, virtually conceded its au¬ 
thority, as all conceded it, by accejiting and 
acting as such, and by signing and issuing an 
address to the democratic electors of the state, 
urging them to come out with uuanimity and 
vigor in support of the regularly nominated 
state ticket. This committee, in accordance 
with the express power conferred upon it, call¬ 
ed the state convention which is to assemble 
this day at the Capitol in this city. The ob¬ 
ject of this convention, as stated in the publish¬ 
ed notice and call of the co.mmittee, is “ to 
carry out more fully the recommendation of 
the late democratic state convention held at 
Syracuse, in relation to the appointment of 
delegates to the National Convention, and for 
perfecting the organization, and devising mea¬ 
sures to re.store the ascendancy, of the demo¬ 
cratic party in the state.” These objects and 
the proposed call were fully stated to each mem¬ 
ber of the committee by Mr. Pruyn, chairman 
of the state committee, and each, except Mr. 
Paige, authorized his name to be signed to 
the call. Col. Paige’s name was not affixed to 
the call; and not one whose name has been so 
published, has signified in any manner, so far 
as the committee know, or so far as either 
have made publication, his unwillingness to co¬ 
operate cordially in the call and in the mea¬ 
sures “more fully to carry out the recommen¬ 
dation of the Syracuse convention.” 

The issue then, is simply between the few 
leading parlizans, who threw in tire Wilmot 





28 


Pjoviso at Syracuse, who insisted there upon 
that test, who retired to Herkimer and pro¬ 
claimed that issue as the ‘'chief stone of the 
corner, which the builders at Syracuse had re¬ 
jected,” who denounced, after takinj^ part and 
voting’ in the Syracuse convention, the ticket 
presented by it, and uniting with the whigs at 
the polls, ensured its defeat, who then called a 
wholly irregular and spurious state convention 
at Herkimer, to appoint Wilmot Proviso dele¬ 
gates to the national convention, but who, find¬ 
ing their position untenable and annoying 
sought to escape throuirh the aid of a subser¬ 
vient minority of the democratic members of 
the legislature, numbering all together only 37 
members in both branches, elected one year 
before the choice of delegates to the Syracuse 
state convention, through whose compliance, 
they have been enabled to transfer the “ cor 
ner stone” from Herkimer to Utica: The is¬ 
sue, we repeat, is sim})ly between the leaders 
in this disorganization, and the recommenda¬ 
tion of a regular and duly constituted state 
convention, and the call of a state committee, 
duly appointed by it, which, under the direct 
authority conferred upon it, have called the 
state convention which meets in this city this 
day, to carry out more fully the recommenda¬ 
tion of the Syracuse convention, and to orga¬ 
nize for the choice of national delegates in the 
several districts of the state. These delegates 
duly chosen, will stand, not upon new and nar¬ 
row tests, sectional and factious in themselves 
^the offspring of abolitionism and whig 
gery —intended to foment sectional divisions 
between different portions of our country, and 
to divide, denationalize and defeat the demo 
cratic party, in the approaching presidential 
election—but upon grounds distinctly hostile 
to these and all other “firebrands;” to main¬ 
tain the principles of the Democratic Party, as 
acted upon by it, from the Farewell address 
of the Father of his Country and the broad 
platform of Jefferson, to the juesent day; and 
to sustain the administration of President Polk, 
the War, and the nominees and principles of 
the Democratic National Convention. 

With such true and clear grounds of dif¬ 
ference—distinctive and unquestionable—we 
have no doubt nor fear where the Democratic 
Masses will be found, now and hereafter. 


jippropriate — John P, Hale, who was 
nominated for the presidency by the Abolition 
or “ Liberty Party,” atajreneral convention of 
that parly, and who recently introduced the Wil¬ 
mot Prociso into the Senate of the U. S., has for¬ 
mally accepted the nomination. 


Democratic State Convention, 


We have the satisfaction to lay before the 
Democracy of the State, the Proceedings, Ad¬ 
dress and Resolutions of the Democratic State 
Convention. 

This Convention assembled in the Capitol at 
Albany, on Wednesday, and closed its proceed¬ 
ings on Thursday afternoon. 

A body of higher principled or firmer 
democrats never assembled in a state con¬ 
vention. All their proceedings were char¬ 
acterized by strength, a consciousness of right, 
and an earnest devotion to the interests and 
principles of the Democratic Party. Through¬ 
out they were harmonious, dignified and firm 
in the highest degree; and they were conclu¬ 
ded wdth an enthusiastic feeling, ■which is the 
presage of good results. 

If for a single moment, owing to the repeat¬ 
ed calls of state conventions during the year, 
and the inconvenience of coming from distant 
portions of the state at this season, we doubted 
whether the call of the regularly constituted 
slate committee would be responded to with 
entire alacrity, any such doubt was dispelled 
by the attendance of this highly respectable, 
intelligent and efficient body of democratic 
delegates. 

For the positions, direct and confident, on 
which the delegated democracy go to the peo¬ 
ple of the state, we refer the reader to the Ad¬ 
dress and Resolutions, adopted by acclamation, 
as their sentiments and opinions, plainly, clearly 
and emphatically presented. They are enti¬ 
tled, not less from their source, than their tone 
and manner, and their true democratic spirit, 
to the candid consideration, and the warm ap¬ 
proval, of the Democracy of the State. 

They present a rallying point for the true 
friends of the Democracy, here and every 
where. They stand upon the old principles 
and clear rights of the Democratic Party.— 
They discard all new tests, and repudiate the 
introduction of “ firebrands” in any form, whe¬ 
ther the offsiiring of abolitionism or the “ cor- 
, ner stones” of their allies in the garb of de¬ 
mocracy. They vindicate the princijdes and 
the measures of the National Administration. 
They stand upon them in the strongest manner, 
and in the firmest tone. The war, its vigorous 
prosecution, and the great measure of territo¬ 
rial indemnity, unshackled by provisos, or any 
other artifice of whig or factious hostility to 
the Administration, are enforced with a vigor, 
earnestness and truth, worthy of a national 






29 


cause which enlists the favor and challenges 
the ardent support of (he American People. 

It presents the issue between the great body 
of the Democratic Party, who sustained its 
regular ticket and organizations at the last 
election, on the old democratic ground, and 
those who defeated it, denounced its ticket, 
and directly voting the whig ticket or deposit¬ 
ing only mongrel or unreal tickets, gave to the 
whigs their present ascendency in the state.— 
The pretence for conduct so disorganizing and 
unfavorable to the democratic interests, was 
the refusal of (he Democratic State Con¬ 
vention at Syracuse to proclaim the Wilmot 
Proviso as a democratic test, and the “ great 
principle” for which the ticket, the cause, 
and the iiolitical power of the State and the 
Union, must be sacrificed. On this ground 
those partizans now stand. They called a 
state convention at Herkimer to reaffirm 
it, and to appoint delegates to Baltimore, under 
its panoply; and they have transferred that 
convocation to Utica for that purpose. It stands 
now at the head of the Atlas sheet, the organ 
of (he disorganizers, as its “ chief stone of the 
corner,” precisely as it stood when its authors 
and their abettors assailed and defeated the 
democratic ticket on that issue. Upon that 
issue they must stand at Utica, or admit (he 
utter insincerity and profligacy of their conduct 
at the late election, and all their loud-mouthed 
professions about “ free soil, free speech” and 
their adjuncts, before and since. Upon that 
issue the Democracy of the State will not stand. 
The convention, representing and reflecting 
truly the democratic sentiment, reject and dis¬ 
avow it. Their proceedings and declarations 
are all in a spirit hostile to the introduction of 
any such tests, or of any scheme to annoy the 
administration and minister to the designs of its 
adversaries. The strong democratic Electoral 
Ticket, unanimously nominated by the Conven 
tion, is presented in that spirit, and as a proof 
of the earnestness with which they support the 
nominees of the National Democratic Conven¬ 
tion. That convention will also reject the 


“ comer stone” test. Every member of the 
present National Administration rejects it.— 
Every probable candidate for the nomination 
at Baltimore, rejects it. 

If then the partizans who may assemble at 
Utica, reaffirm their odious and anti-democra¬ 
tic test, and appoint delegates to the national 
convention, or nominate an electoral ticket, 
based upon it, they clearly do so in derogation 
of the present National Administration and in 
hostility to the democratic national nominees, 
and their only design will be to again defeat 
the democratic ticket in (he state and to aim a 
blow at the democratic a.scendency in the Union. 

If they sincerely desire to ensure success to 
the Cause of the Democracy of (he Union and 
to (he nominees of the National Convention, 
they will abandon their test, discard their 
“ corner stone,” and adopt the electoral ticket 
now nominated composed of true and tried dem¬ 
ocrats, who are instructed, and who will feel 
themselves pledged,to vote for the nominees of the 
national convention. Any other course can 
have no other object than to contribute to tlie 
defeat of those nominees. We feel (he ut¬ 
most confidence that they cannot produce that 
result, whatever their course may be, but 
such must be the design, if they bring out 
other electoral ticket. These tests withdrawn, 
and a common electoral ticket adopted, having 
a common object, the adjustment of all other 
questions of difference would naturally follow. 

We trust that the democrats of the several 
counties will take prompt and energetic mea¬ 
sures to ensure a thorough circulation among 
the people of (he proceedings of the Conven¬ 
tion. Give them light and the truth, and error 
will soon flee away. 

The speeches of the President, and of 
Messrs. McVean, Thompson and Clin¬ 
ton, which will be found embodied in the 
proceedings, were admirable in manner and 
tone, and will arrest (he attention and com¬ 
mand the confidence of the true friends of the 
Democracy throughout the State and through¬ 
out the Union. 




SPEECH OF GEN. HOUSTON, OF TEXAS 


[At the great War Meeting at Tammany Hall, January 29 , 1848 .] 


Fellow citizens of the Democracy of New 
York ; For the first lime in my life I am here 
presented before an assembly which is the most 
numerous, the most cheering, and the most em¬ 
boldening which I ever saw or ever heard of, or 
ever speculated upon seeing and hearing. I 
have heard much of the democracy of New 
York; I know their zeal, their ardor, their de- 
voted patriotism, ana their fidelity to the princi¬ 
ples of liberty and of the constitution. But now 
I see and have learned that they are a mighty 
people—mighty, I mean to say in the dignity 
and magnitude of those feelings which influence 
a great people, and which make the man ever 
ready to vindicate his rights and sustain and 
Support the constituted authorities of his coun- 
try. (Loud applause.) What is the subject 
and object of this meeting? It is not, fellow 
citizens, a meeting called to deliberate upon a 
war which we are about to go into. No ; but it 
is concerning a war in which we are already en¬ 
gaged—which we are now in the midst of— 
which, I may rather say, we have already dis¬ 
posed of by the gallantry of our trooi>s, and the 
wisdom of our statesmen. We should not be 
properly able to appreciate the truth and justice 
of our condition, and of the present war, if we 
did not revert to the causes of this war, and the 
position in which w^e were placed, at the time 
of its commencement, in relation to the civilized 
world. I grant you, fellow citizens,it is truein 
referring to those speeches, of which we hear so 
much in respect to this war, that in part, it has 
giow’ii up out of the annexation of Texas. But 
in that annexation the best of the bargain was 
yours, and you ought to be satisfied. I say the 
best of it was yours, not so much in the material 
you got,—though by the by. that was not bad; 
but in the extent and richness of soil, in the va¬ 
riety and beauty of climate, and in the verity of 
those institutions we possessed. We had noth¬ 
ing to learn of these institutions and principles 
in this annexation; we imbibed them all with 
our mother’s milk, we returned to you, chastened, 
it is true, in the school of experience, and taught 
by the bitter lessons of adversity. The great 
politicians of this day have now put themselves 
in opposition to this war; and yet they were 
willing at its commencement to embark in it.— 
They then said it was the duty of the Presi¬ 
dent to fix the boundary of the newly acquired 
country, and now they deny that her boundary 
was that which she possessed before the annex¬ 
ation wms made. That boundary, however, 
lellow.citizens, which they now deny to Texas, 
was hers, and belonged to her by power. We 
never rebelled against Mexico; but she. it was, 
who first violated our constitution, subverted our 
jaws, subjected us to tbe most cruel despotism, 


and drove us, by her injustice, tyranny, and op¬ 
pression, to vindicate our rights, which were the 
common rights of freemen 

The object of Mexico, in her system of des¬ 
potism and oppression, exercised against us, 
was, if possible, to sweep us from the soil, to 
annihilate the whole race of us, and not to suf¬ 
fer one of the Saxon blood to leave the impress 
of his foot upon the soil which we inhabited.— 
What did we do? We resisted this oppression, 
we asserted our lawful rights, we established 
for ourselves a provisional government, and we 
continued on in the hope that a better state of 
things, a better government, would be created 
in Mexico; that the other States would, like 
ourselves, assert their rights under the constitu¬ 
tion, which had been so shamefully violated.— 
We continued hoping that the Mexicans them¬ 
selves would rally to support us and redeem the 
country from despotism, violence and oppres¬ 
sion. We went on in the enjoyment of our re¬ 
publican liberty—we endured till our hopes be¬ 
came fainter and fainter. But notwithstanding 
all this, it was not until 1836, when Santa Anna 
marched against us with his myrmidons, threat¬ 
ening our destruction, and devastating our fields 
and our country—it was not until the day of the 
Alamo, when a brave and Spartan band was 
sacrificed by his sanguinary hordes—I say, not 
until then, when, driven by desperation and op¬ 
pression, did w'e declare the Declaration of Tex¬ 
an Independence. Then it was we made that 
declaration. We made it in the face of heaven. 
We then pledged our lives, our property (that, 
indeed, was but little.) and our sacred honor, 
that W’e would vindicate our just and natural 
rights against the despot and oppressor. We 
did this and alter the tyrant lay manacled at 
our feet, we liberated the captive. It was al- 
ter the declaration of Texan Independence; af. 
ter that the despot was in the military control 
of the country, w’hen victory had justified our 
cause, and triumph and success had crowned 
our Declaration of Independence; it was then 
that the tyrant directed the order and sent the 
mandate to his general, Filasola, to vacate the 
territory which was now the independent terri- 
tory of a nation which had risen up and decla¬ 
red its independence. That mandate W’enl the 
next morning to Filasola, ordering him to re¬ 
tire wuth his troops from the soil of Texas; and 
where did he retire? Where did he stop? They 
did not stop at the Nueces. That was not the 
boundary of Texas. They did not slop at the 
Rio Grande. That was not the boundary. But 
they marched on in pursuance of the mandate, 
to leave Texas, and they first stopped at Mon¬ 
terey. leaving all Texas behind them, and leav¬ 
ing it free. The government agreed with Santa 








Anna afterwards upon Ihe Rio Grande as the 
boundary of Texas, and no question ever arose 
as to the Nueces being its boundary pending the 
negotiations for annexation} but it is only since 
this war began that this question has been rais¬ 
ed by its enemies. But still more. By a law 
passed in 1836, it was promulgated to all the 
civilized world that the Rio Grande was the 
boundary of Texas. This boundary w’as then 
defined and strictly laid out as beginning at the 
mouth of the river of that name: then running a 
north-west course up the middle of the river, 
from thence crossing in a line, particularly defi¬ 
ned over the territory of the United States, on 
to the ocean. This was then declared by law 
to be the boundary of Texas. This was not 
done in a corner—it was not hid under a bush¬ 
el; but it was promulgated in the face of all the 
civilized world. This was in 1836. This was 
then recognized as being our boundary by the 
United Stales; this was then recognized as be¬ 
ing our boundary by France; it was so recogni¬ 
zed by Holland: it was so recognized by Belgi¬ 
um. It was not questioned by any one, or by 
any power, but that this was our boundary.— 
No man can contest this truth. All Christen¬ 
dom recognized this to be the boundary of Tex¬ 
as, by their subsequent acts. (Great applause.) 
But this is not all; the evidence thickens upon 
me; but time W'ill not allow that I should bring 
it all forward before you. 

Whe Mexico invaded Texas, she crossed the 
Rio Grande, and wasted and plundered the ran- 
cheros which were on the Texian side of it.— 
When she came to spoil our country, to ravage 
our land, to burn our villages and our farms, 
and spread destruction and desolation over the 
country of Texas, she crossed the Rio Grande, 
and then and there she began her work of spoil 
and devastation. And again, after these furtive 
exploits, when she fled, driven away with in¬ 
famy by our so’dier citizens, she skulked back 
again to hide in her fastnesses on the other side 
of that river. This was declared and manifest¬ 
ed before all the world to be the boundary of 
Texas, and this long before the act of annexa¬ 
tion with the United States. Nor is this all.— 
Mexico, after two successive outrages upon 
Texas, still refused to learn wisdom by experi¬ 
ence. The President ol Texas ordered and pre¬ 
pared an army which crossed over the Rio 
Grande, reduced Guerrero, and recrossed again 
at its leisure, saying effectually to Mexico, 
“ We can cross over into your country as well 
as you can into ours : you stay where you are, 
and we will let you alone.” They never cross¬ 
ed again. The unfortunate Mier expedition 
arose out of this state of things. It cost us 
much trouble to teach Mexico that our bound¬ 
ary must be respected by her, or else that her 
boundary would not be regarded by us. But 
this is not all. Mexico never occupied this 
country after our independence was declared 
and asserted. We possessed and occupied the 
country, and would permit the establishment of 
Mexican settlement in the country we occupied. 
In all the negotiations which were entered into 
in relation to the armistice, there was no ques¬ 
tion raised of the Neuces being the boundary of 
Texas; but our commissioners went on the 
other side of the Rio Grande to meet the Mexi¬ 
can commissioners, and there it was they nego- 
goUateU for an armistice. Again. When Santa 


Anna put an end to the war, he denounced all 
those who should be found in league on this 
side of the Rio Grande. This shows that he 
himself regarded this line as our boundary. But 
this is not all. When, in 1845, a treaty was 
made by the new Executive, Jones, with the 
then government of Mexico, which treaty was 
called the Cubes Treaty, Mexico, by her own 
act, then recognized the Rio Grande as the 
boundary of the State of Texas. She never 
raised the question of the Nueces being the 
boundary of Texas. She recognized again the 
Rio Grande as our boundary when she required 
of Texas as the condition of acknowledging her 
independence, that she should not become an¬ 
nexed to the United Slates. 

All this, fellow'-citizens, which I have here 
mentioned, and more which might be mention- 
ed, goes to establish the fact that the Neuces 
never W'as the boundary of Texas, until it was 
made so here in the United States, Mexico 
herself never thought it to be our boundary; we 
marked out our boundary by our life’s blood; 
we obtained it by the sacrifice of our citizens, 
and by noble conquest. It was recognized by 
Mexico and the world, and it would be a scan¬ 
dal to the United Stales to give it up. (Loud 
cries of “ Never, never ”) We made ourselves, 
by our acts, a free, sovereign, and independent 
nation, and we bad the right to annexourselves 
to the United States. We did so. Who will 
say it was not constitutional to take us ? It W’as 
the voice of the American f-eople which look us 
into this confederacy, and now that we are a 
part of the Union, it is the duty of the Execu¬ 
tive to defend the soil acquired to the confeder¬ 
acy. There is no question what is the bounda¬ 
ry, for It was defined, asserted, and maintained, 
before the annexation was made; and it has nev¬ 
er been questioned, except by those who have 
raised the question from party motives and fac¬ 
tion. Was it, then, the President’s duty to de¬ 
fend the soil and territory of the United Stales? 
Or did he, without any cause, bring about this 
war, upon poor oppressed Mexico? (Laugh¬ 
ter.) I sympathize, indeed, with Mexico; I have 
no antipathy to gratify against her, but while 
I can divest myself of all hard feelings towards 
her, I cannot divest mylself of a holy devotion to 
my country and her righteous cause, and I must 
spurn the man who would prove recreant to the 
sacred cause of his country, and espouse that of 
alien. (Three cheers called for and rapturous¬ 
ly given.) I cannot regard as fello vv-citizens the 
men who array themselves against the cause of 
their country, who defame its armies and the 
glory they have acquired for the nation, who ar¬ 
ray themselves against the administration of 
their country, and seek to strengthen the hands 
of the enemy. Such people do not reflect, or 
they have forgotten all wisdom of the mind, im¬ 
pelled by faction, they are the enemies of their 
country’s cause—enemies of that glorious en¬ 
thusiasm which animates the American patriot 
—while they reserve all their feelings and pity 
for poor Mexico,” and care nothing at all a- 
bout the United Stales and their own country, 
I say that you have got a good bargain in gelling 
Texas; and I, who say this—I think I can prove 
it and make you believe it. Assuredly as to¬ 
morrow’s sun will rise and pursue its bright 
course along the fimament of heaven, so cer¬ 
tain it appears to my mind, must the Anglo Sax- 




32 


on race pervaJe the whole Southern extremity 
of this vast continent, and the people whom God 
has placed here in this land, spread, prevail, 
and pervade throughout the whole rich empire 
of this great hemisphere. The manner of the 
consummation of this grand result 1 cannot pre¬ 
dict; but there is an instinct in the American 
people which impels them onward, which will 
lead them to pervade this continent, to devel- 
ope its resources, to civilize its people, and re¬ 
ceive the rich bounties of the creating power of 
Divine Providence. There is another consider¬ 
ation in this respect, which is conclusive to my 
mind. The Americans resard this continent as 
their birth-right. The seed of all their settle¬ 
ments has been sown in blood and watered by 
blood. The pioneers who went forward into 
the wilderness poured out their heart’s blood to 
prepare the country for their prosperity; their 
scalps were taken by the Indian; they sacrificed 
their life’s blood to acquire the possession which 
we enjoy. 

If ail these difficulties and sacrifices did not 
terrify the bold pioneers, the success of centu¬ 
ries only tends to confirm what they began, and 
nothing can prevent our mighty march. There 
is another consideration You, here, fellow 
citizens, are living in cities, in the enjoyment of 
all the blessings and comforts of civilization 
here ; and if you undertake to go into the wil¬ 
derness, into the domain of the wild beast, and 
begin to pursue the game, to plant plantations, 
W'hen you see the f^arra, the field, the garden 
spring up around you, your feelings will become 
attached to the land, it will imbue your hearts, 
you will catch the contagion of the frontier 
settler ; you will not be able to escape it. You 
may escape the small pox, but you can never 
escape the ontagation of land loving. As sure 
as you live, it will become a part of your na¬ 
ture. There is not an American upon earth but 
what loves land. It is the fact, though I say so 
only in my coarse and vulgar V7ay. (Great ap¬ 
plause.) Your ancestors, when they landed at 
Plymouth upon that famous rock, were not long 
contented with that barren spot, but proceeded 
in their might, and went on progressing at 
Jamestown as well as at Plymouth, till all the 
country was possessed by them. From the first 
moment they landed, they went to trading with 
the Indians, and cheating them out of their land. 
Now the Mexicans are no better than Indians, 
and I see no reason why we should not go on 
in the same course now, and take their land.— 
But these countries will be benefitted by our oc¬ 
cupation. Look at the Californias, Sonora, 
Western Mexico, New Mexico, &.c. All these 
vast regions, where only a few hundred thou* 
sand souls are living in such wide dominions— 
where the wild Indian extends with impunity 
his ravages, and unchecked penetrates into the 
heart of Mexico, even as far as Potosi, spoiling 
and destroying as he goes along ; seizing upon 



0 033 255 005 1 


the women, wi 
rating them into 7 | j 

white man—let the American inierpoiic , 
him say to the Indian, “ Stay, savage ; we will 
protect these helpless people. We will do it.” 
(Loud applause.) We are the majority, and it 
must be done. It must be done for the sake of 
humanity. I am not one of those who delight 
to riot in the spoils of the poor, and keep the 
people in abject proverty and subjection. Such, 
however, is the condition of the Mexican peo¬ 
ple, exposed to a constant succession of revolu¬ 
tions. In twenty-five years, Mexico has under¬ 
gone twenty.five different revolutions. They are 
a people incapable of self-government. We are 
now in this war, engaged in giving peace, se¬ 
curity, and happiness to this oppressed people. 

May God save the man who strives for his 
country, and wither the arm of him who fights 
against it! (Applause.) I do not think the war 
with Mexico is such a calamity as it has been 
deprecated and deplored to be. I think differ¬ 
ently. The w’ays of Providence are certainly 
inscrutable ; but I think think we may see the 
finger of God in this war, giving success to our 
arms, and crowning our forces with victory.— 

I do not deplore it; for. though blood has flow¬ 
ed, and valuable lives have been lost, yet not 
one act of cruelty has been committed in all the 
victories which our arms have gained. Their 
humanity has been displayed to the astonishment 
and admiration of the world, and as a model 
and example for all future armies. Then, I say, 
the Divine Being has been evtdently carrying 
out the destiny of the American race. We give 
to the Mexicans liberal principles—we elevate 
them far above what their tyrants have done, 
done, and the day will come wdien they will 
bless the Americans as their friends and libera¬ 
tors until time shall cease. The President must 
not be left alone in doing this great tyork. We 
must hold up his arm, give solace te his heart, 
support him in his course, to give continued tri¬ 
umph to our armies and success to our institu¬ 
tions. Though I am not pious, yet as a sinner 
I say it, we have a powerful authority for wmrs 
in the conduct of the people of Israel, who were 
led by Divine power to possess themselves of 
the lands of the Ammonites, and smite them 
with the edge of the sword. This same man¬ 
date from God guides us in this war, and gives 
successes to our arms, and I think will continue 
to guide and to prosper America. I feel grate¬ 
ful for the attention you have given to me. I 
know I have trespassed upon your time : I 
would recommend you, if the country should be 
acquired, to take a trip of exploration there; 
and look out fnr the beautiful senoritas, or pret¬ 
ty girls, and if you should choose to annex them, 
no doubt the result of this annexation will be 
a most powerful and delightful evidence of civil¬ 
ization. 


Orders for the Proceedings of the Democratic State Convention, complete, received at 
the Argus office, Albany, at $2 per 100.] 







